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History · Laytonsville

Laytonsville’s post office opened in 1848, and 13% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listings are the Layton House and the Oaks II. Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1878 on and old-book passages.

1848first post office
2on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Laytonsville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Laytonsville began

When was Laytonsville founded?

1848

The Laytonsville post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1892. Two smaller post offices, Goshen Mills (1818) and Cracklintown (1848), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 572178 years
Founding year: the first Laytonsville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1892.The full story ↓

What stands out about Laytonsville’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Laytonsville.Deep rootsA post office since 1848: 178 years of Laytonsville.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be

Lost post offices and burying grounds

Laytonsville had its own post office from 1848 to 1908. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Goshen Mills
1818–1848
Cracklintown
1848–1848
Laytonsville
1848–1908
18101920today
1cemetery inside Laytonsville
Saint Paul Methodist Church

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Timeline

Laytonsville, 1818 to 1993

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1818Post officeThe Goshen Mills post office opens
  3. 1848Post officeThe Goshen Mills post office closes
  4. 1848Post officeThe Cracklintown post office opens
  5. 1848Post officeThe Cracklintown post office closes
  6. 1848Post officeThe Laytonsville post office opens
  7. 1878In the archiveAtlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including the County of Prince George, Maryland
  8. 20th century
  9. 1908Post officeThe Laytonsville post office closes
  10. 1936In the archiveHistoric American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, Photographer August 3, 1936 11-15 A.…
  11. 1993Born hereMalcolm Miller is born here
The story

How Laytonsville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Laytonsville.

Read it all →

Laytonsville was originally known as "Cracklintown". This name originated from the popular cracklin bread, which was baked in the locale. This recipe, essentially a bacon cornbread, also lent the entire area the name of Cracklin District. The original town extended beyond Laytonsville's current boundaries, along Sundown Road toward the Hawlings River. The earliest church, school, and store were in this area. The first major road through Cracklintown was built in the early 1800s. This was the Brink-Sundown Road, referred to in documents from the early 1800s as the "road from the mouth of the Monocacy to Ellicotts Mills."

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Laytonsville in 1879

Passages that mention Laytonsville, cut from the printed page as they were published.

This tract extends from Thomas J. Holland's farm, some eight or nine miles in a north-westerly direction, beyond the Big Seneca. The town of Brookeville, which was founded in 1780, and Laytonsville are situated on it. The load from Brookeville to Laytonsville passes through the tract, which embrace…
The history of Montgomery county, Maryland, from its earliest settlement in 1650 to 1879 ..1879 · page 39Read the page →
Read the text

This tract extends from Thomas J. Holland's farm, some eight or nine miles in a north-westerly direction, beyond the Big Seneca. The town of Brookeville, which was founded in 1780, and Laytonsville are situated on it. The load from Brookeville to Laytonsville passes through the tract, which embraces some of the finest farms in the County, including those of B. J. Hall, the late Dr. William B. Bfagruder, John Biggs, Charles Brooke, the late Walter Magruder, David L. Pugh, Thomas l>. Gaither,

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Worthy of mention among the self-made men of the Countsis the Hon. George W. Hilton, born in Laytonsville, October the 2d, 1823, and educated in Georgetown, District of Columbia. Soon after completing his education he commenced the teaching of school in the old mountain school house, in the third d…
The history of Montgomery county, Maryland, from its earliest settlement in 1650 to 1879 ..1879 · page 94Read the page →
Read the text

Worthy of mention among the self-made men of the Countsis the Hon. George W. Hilton, born in Laytonsville, October the 2d, 1823, and educated in Georgetown, District of Columbia. Soon after completing his education he commenced the teaching of school in the old mountain school house, in the third district, afterwards he taught school iu Clarksburg and Cracklin Districts. In 1847, he was appointed Deputy Sheriff and Collector, which position he occupied until he engaged in merchandising

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

Laytonsville, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1870s2 items
Atlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including the County of Prince George, Maryland1878Atlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including t…MapAtlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including the county of Montgomery, Maryland1879Atlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including t…Map
1930s4 items
Historic American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, Photographer August 3, 1936 11-15 A. M. VIEW FROM NORTHWEST (front…1936Historic American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, …Historic American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, Photographer August 3, 1936 11-20 A. M. VIEW FROM EAST - John S. L…1936Historic American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, …Historic American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, Photographer August 3, 1936 11-25 A. M. VIEW FROM SOUTHEAST - John…1936Historic American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, …Historic American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, Photographer August 3, 1936 12-45 P. M. VIEW FROM NORTHWEST - Reti…1936Historic American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, …
1940s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Historic American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, Photographer August 3, 1936 11-15 A. M. VIEW FROM NORTHWEST (front…
Retake this viewHistoric American Buildings Survey John O. Brostrup, Photographer August 3, 1936 11-15 A. M. VIEW FROM NORTHWEST (front…, 1936

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Laytonsville’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

2 historic places in Laytonsville

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
6
each building in a district counts
first listed
1975
Layton House
Layton House
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Federal1
Layton HouseFederal
Oaks IIBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Help out

Finish Laytonsville’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewHistoric American Buildings Survey John…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Laytonsville’s history

What year was Laytonsville founded?

The Laytonsville post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1892.

What is on the National Register in Laytonsville?

Two places: the Layton House (listed 1975) and the Oaks II (1982).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.