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Rockville’s College Gardens enjoys proximity to forest preserve

2023-12-11 00:00:00.0 华盛顿邮报-华盛顿特区原网页

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Raising a family in College Gardens meant Jennifer Weiland could let her children run wild in a quiet, beloved patch of woods where — just five minutes from downtown Rockville — kids fish in a babbling stream, string hammocks among mature trees and build forts from fallen branches.

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The Upper Watts Branch Forest Preserve is “the gem of our area,” said Weiland, president of the College Gardens Civic Association. The green space forms the western border of the neighborhood of about 330 single-family houses situated between Interstate 270 and MD-355.

“It’s just such a blessing for us to have this wild area in the middle of the suburbs,” Weiland said.

Over the years, the community has fought efforts to make even modest changes to the preserve, including several attempts to build paved bike trails. Residents prefer the rugged natural paths marked by signposts and blazes courtesy of the local Scout troop, Weiland said.

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The undisturbed quality of what locals refer to as “the woods” speaks to the character of College Gardens as a whole, Weiland said. Despite its proximity to highways and to Rockville’s urban center, the neighborhood has retained its leafy, secluded charm for about half a century.

College Gardens was constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s on what had been a large swath of farmland. Plenty of the original homeowners remain in the neighborhood, said Tom Miner, a retired real estate agent who has lived in College Gardens since 1995.

As some of those original buyers downsized and left the community, young families have been attracted to the neighborhood’s quiet streets, its lack of a homeowners association and its school district, he said.

College Gardens Elementary School is walking distance for all of the neighborhood’s residents.

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“In the morning, you see streams of kids and families and dogs walking to school,” Miner said.

And even outside of school hours, the area is a haven for walkers. Before Weiland moved to the neighborhood, she regularly left the immature trees of her nearby community for strolls through College Gardens’ woods and shady streets.

Now Weiland — who moved to College Gardens in 2012 — is used to seeing residents of surrounding neighborhoods drive in, park across the street from her home and unload their children or dogs for walks in the forest preserve.

Nathan Rutledge, who moved to College Gardens with his wife and toddler earlier this year, said the low speed limits and pedestrian-friendly streets were part of what drew him to the community.

Rutledge and his wife had been renting in Bethesda, but were looking for somewhere with less traffic and larger lots. For a while, College Gardens didn’t occur to him.

“I’ve lived in Montgomery County my whole life, and this area wasn’t one that I really had on my radar before,” Rutledge said.

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Once he looked into it, though, Rutledge said he quickly felt the neighborhood’s inviting atmosphere.

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“It’s an easy place to feel at home,” said longtime resident Diane Fuchs.

Weiland has fond memories of her children and her neighbors’ children building snow forts on days when schools were closed and of watermelon seed-spitting contests at Labor Day picnics. She became so close with one of her neighbors that her children grew up calling the woman “Nana.”

The six-acre College Gardens Park has a playground, a pond, picnic tables and sports fields. In nearby Woodley Gardens — on the other side of the forest preserve — there’s a pool where College Gardens children compete on the swim team each summer.

The neighborhood garden club is popular among adults.

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Fuchs, whose College Gardens home served as the family hub as her grandchildren grew up, is part of a team working to help older residents remain in their houses as they age.

She is helping launch a chapter of The Village Movement, a group of independent nonprofits across the country that create networks of community support.

Once the College Gardens Village is off the ground, Fuchs said, residents will be able to sign up through a centralized system for tasks such as driving older neighbors to doctor’s appointments or shoveling driveways.

“You know the phrase it takes a village to raise a family?” Fuchs said. “Well, it also takes a village to keep people stable and healthy and in their own homes.”

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Living there: As of Nov. 20, 10 houses had sold in College Gardens in 2023, with an average price of about $807,000, said Long and Foster real estate agent Audrey Romano. The least expensive was a four-bedroom, 2？ bathroom house that went for $725,000. The most expensive was a five-bedroom, 3？ bathroom house that sold for $950,000.

The housing inventory in the neighborhood is “extremely low,” Romano said. There were no houses on the market as of Nov. 20.

Schools: College Gardens Elementary School, Julius West Middle School and Richard Montgomery High School.

Transit: The Rockville Metro Station is about two miles away. Montgomery County’s Ride-On bus route No. 45, which can transport residents to the Rockville and Twinbrook stations, has stops in and around the neighborhood. Bikers and walkers can take advantage of the Carl Henn Millennium Trail, an 11-mile multiuse path that borders College Gardens in its loop around Rockville.

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