Original Fallsmead HOA dues in 1968 were $6 per month. Dues increased to $9 per month (or $108 per year) in July 1969 when the pool opened.

 

 

On March 23, 1968, the Kettler Brothers advertised new homes for sale in Fallsmead in the Washington Post. According to the ad, Fallsmead was a family community, the "kind of place that shapes a child's future, determines a wife's attitude toward life, and reflects the achievements of a man's career." Fallsmead was, according to Kettler, the "newest now place by Kettler Brothers."

 

 

In a blast from the not-so-distant past. . .March of 2013 was a busy month in Fallsmead: construction on the brand new playground was completed, and our revamped website at fallsmead.org was launched (no, that really wasn’t a shameless website plug!). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Construction of Fallsmead began in 1967 near Falls Road and Fallsmead Way. Building progressed up Fallsmead Way toward what is now Wootton Parkway, and then swung around to the Greenplace Terrace side. The last houses in the original section of Fallsmead were completed in 1973. The new section of Fallsmead (Pipestem Court and lower Pipestem Place beyond the pond entrance) was built in 1982-1983.

 

 

 

 

Construction of 5 Old Creek Court and other houses on Old Creek Court in November 1971. Photos Courtesy of Jim Marrinan from the Fallsmead History Photo Album. 

Fallsmead’s 25th Anniversary Dinner Dance was held on Saturday, February 26, 1994, at Lakewood Country Club. Dinner included salad, bread sticks, stuffed chicken breast or London broil, julienne vegetables, oven roasted bliss potato, and chocolate crepe. Music for dancing was provided by Airplay.

 

Photo Caption: Pages from the 25th Anniversary Dinner Dance program from the Fallsmead History Page.

The Fallsmead Citizens Association (FCA) was formed on February 19, 1975 to engage in any political or legal activities that might jeopardize the assets or tax-exempt status of the non-political Fallsmead Homes Corporation.

 

While it was active, the FCA represented Fallsmead citizens on matters such as transportation (e.g., building of the I-270 Falls Road interchange), local development (e.g., building of the Fallsbend neighborhood and opposing a plan for a high-rise next to the Rockshire shopping center), and community matters (e.g., neighborhood stop signs, negotiating with Berger-Berman for expansion of Fallsmead, and negotiating volume discounts for smoke detectors).

 

 

 

When Kettler first began marketing Fallsmead in the late 1960s, their list of neighborhood amenities from their marketing brochure included a "special skiing-sledding hill," a "mini-mountain," and a pond "for summer fishing and winter skating" (horrors!). 

 

 

Since the City didn't like any of their street names, Kettler asked Mrs. Betts (whose family sold the Fallsmead property to Kettler) for other suggestions. She suggested Duncan Branch (after the Duncans, who used to own the Warwick Montgomery house at 16 Pipestem Court), Pipestem (because she thought the lane then leading back to the pipe-bowl shaped Ewing Farm looked like a pipestem), Trail House (after the Trail family, who owned Fallsmead property in the 19th and 20th centuries), and James Spring. 

 

 

While Kettler was successful in giving the neighborhood its name, it didn't have as much luck with street names. Although Kettler initially proposed more than 30 street names to the Rockville Planning Commission - including Cimarron, Lumpkin, Mellow Wood, Nordstrom, Shagwood, and Watterworth - not a single one was actually used.

 

Until the early 1980s, Pipestem Court and lower Pipestem Place beyond the pond entrance (which were built in the mid-1980s) were part of the 10-acre Ewing Farm. Early Fallsmead residents remember seeing the Ewing cows and horses grazing in the farm's fields. According to early residents, occasionally the cows and horses would escape from the farm and wander around the neighborhood or stare in people's windows.

 

 

In 1929, Bethesda dairy farm owner Warwick Montgomery purchased a 101-acre parcel of land just off Falls Road. On it, he built a summer home which still stands today at 16 Pipestem Court. It is the oldest standing structure in Fallsmead. 

 

 

Kettler Brothers, the developer of Fallsmead, chose the name Fallsmead in the late 1960s because of the neighborhood's location in a meadow near Falls Road. Fallsmead is a combination of "Falls Road" and "Meadow."