One question that new Travilah ES students and their families often ask is: Where does the name TRAVILAH come from? Like many neighborhood schools, Travilah School got its name from the road it faces -- Travilah Road -- and from the community it is a part of -- Travilah. The Travilah area, now mostly suburban developments, used to be a rural farming community. In the late 1880s and early 1900s, the town center, at the intersection of today's Travilah and Glen roads, had a post office, stores, a blacksmith shop, churches, a town hall, and of course a school. With the exception of the town hall, which is now a private residence, all of these buildings have long since disappeared.
But it is the post office that is the key to the name's origin: the community's first post master was named Travilah Clagett. The son of a prominent Darnestown landowner, Nathaniel Clagett, Travilah was born in 1856 and died in December 1883 after serving as postmaster from January to June 1883. The town of Travilah continued to be a postal district only until 1908; then it became part of Gaithersburg. But the name lives on -- in the minds of long-time community residents, in the name of the road that winds from Potomac's River Road through North Potomac and Gaithersburg to Rockville's Route 28, and in the name of our elementary school.
And what about the name of the other road adjacent to Travilah School -- Dufief Mill Road? The source of that name goes back even further, to John Lawrence Du Fief (1817-1877). Du Fief owned a 700-acrefarm, Millwood, which comprised much of the land near today's Travilah and Turkey Foot roads, as well as a flour and saw mill on Muddy Branch, called Glenwood Mills, and a warehouse at the C&O Canal. During the Civil War, Du Fief was a captain in a Union unit stationed at Darnestown and donated some of his land for a drill ground called Camp Woods, which was on what is now Mt. Prospect Farm directly across from the existing Travilah School.
Other place names in the area have their origins from a still earlier period. Query Mill Road, for example, was named for Nicholas Query (1714-1788) who owned a mill on Muddy Branch near what is now Esworthy Road, while Beall Mountain Road and Beallmount estates on River Road got their names from Brooke Beall (1742-1795), Montgomery County's first clerk of court who also owned a mill, this one on Watts Branch near River Road.
The original Travilah School, which opened in November 1886, was a 700-square foot, one-room schoolhouse on Travilah Road near Glen Road. A second classroom and a vestibule were added about 10 years later. When it closed in 1943, students were assigned to other elementary schools until the existing Travilah ES opened at the intersection of Dufief Mill and Travilah roads, a mile or so away, in December 1960. During the next 25 years the school received some repairs and renovations and a new gym. But as the housing developments increased and the population grew, Travilah became overcrowded and its age began to show. Finally in the 1991-92 school year, Travilah underwent a complete modernization and two-room addition while students and staff commuted to Grosvenor ES in Bethesda. The "new" modern Travilah opened its doors August 31, 1992, providing its students with the most up-to-date educational facilities and serving as a vital community resource for the many families in the Travilah area.
Thank you to Sally W. Simmons, whose sons David and Andrew attended Travilah Elementary, for providing the information in this article. Her interest in local history benefits us all.
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