Population: 97,032 Municipal Rockville: 47,767 Upper Rock Creek: 10,345 North Bethesda: 38,920 Office Market: 14 msf First Settled: Pre-Revolution (no exact date found) Incorporated: 1860 Municipal Land Area: 13 sq miles Total Land Area: 38.8 sq miles Distance From DC: 16.6 miles Government: Council / Manager

Historically the most important city in Suburban Maryland, Rockville began life as a Colonial tavern-town and was a gathering place during the Revolutionary War. In 1776 when Montgomery County was formed by a division of Frederick County, Rockville was chosen as seat. In the 20th Century the town grew to become the second largest city in Maryland after Baltimore, though it dropped to fifth in 2000. Today Rockville, though perhaps not as important relative to decades past, remains an important social, cultural and commercial hub for central Montgomery County.

From an urban perspective Rockville is unfortunately better known for what didn’t work than what did. Route 355 (known for stretches in the city as Rockville Pike, Hungerford Drive and Frederick Road) is a nightmare of strip malls, parking lots and heavily over-burdened and hostile traffic lanes. Most of downtown was a victim of Urban Renewal, and was torn out to be replaced by what stood for decades as little more than a glorified office park. Fortunately though city leaders and planners seem to understand the errors of the past and are working to correct them. A major revitalization of downtown is under way that will, if all goes well, return a sense of place and pedestrian scale to the environment. The revitalization focuses on bringing life, activity and mixed-use to the area in an attempt pull downtown in to the ranks of the truly great Transit Oriented Developments of the region, along with such places as Bethesda, Ballston and Silver Spring. It’s too early to know if revitalization will be successful, but the city is committed and the plans look good.