This report presents research on the River Road Moses Cemetery site in Bethesda, Maryland. It was prepared on behalf of the River Road African American descendant community. The following sections include a historic context divided into periods developed by the Maryland Historical Trust for the evaluation of historic properties. The historic context presents substantive archival and oral history research documenting the cemetery site, the community within which it is located, the fraternal organization that founded it, and its historical connections to Washington, D.C.
The historic context is used as a baseline to evaluate the property against the Montgomery County criteria for designation in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation and the National Register of Historic Places. This report finds that the River Road Moses Cemetery appears to be eligible for designation in the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Preservation under four criteria: for its associations with the development of Montgomery County and the region; because it exemplifies multiple aspects of Montgomery County’s heritage; because it embodies distinctive characteristics typical of its historic property type; and, because it represents a distinguishable entity within a cultural landscape.
The River Road Moses Cemetery furthermore appears to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under three criteria. The site appears to be eligible for listing under Criterion A for its associations with African American and suburban history; Criterion C for its architectural and landscape qualities; and, Criterion D for its potential to yield significant new information in history. The property also appears to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places as a traditional cultural property.
Architectural historian Ruth Little has written extensively on North Carolina vernacular cemeteries. She observed that concrete grave markers became popular in the early twentieth century as a more permanent alternative for people who could not afford a marble tombstone.35 The vernacular concrete markers are especially important with regard to the River Road Moses Cemetery. It is the type of grave marker that former River Road resident Harvey Matthews recalls most vividly.
Harvey Matthews in 2017 described how he recalled seeing the concrete grave markers made for people he knew, including family members, buried elsewhere in Montgomery County. “They would build a frame of a cross and pour concrete in it and then chisel the wood from around it and then use that base and that cross for grave markers. And a lot of them had that,” he explained. He then added,
They could make them in the yard. They could make them behind the house, the ones that did masonry work, they just went around and did this. Because either it was somebody’s relative or theirs like my cousin and them used to make them for like my grandfather. He’s buried in Lincoln Park, in the cemetery. And Harvey has that stone like I’m talking about that was made and it was make it, put it in a foundation, pour concrete in it, chisel the wood from around it, okay, that was a cross. Take it to the grave site, dig about a six-, eight-inch hole, set it down in there and take it — it wasn’t chisels back in those days; take something to scratch his name in there because my grandfather’s name — every once in a while, I used to go up in there and take paint or something and try to get the name to come back [rubs hands together as he describes]. But over the years, it’s just wear and tear.36
Though no photos of graves are known to survive from the River Road Moses Cemetery, Matthews did confirm that the vernacular concrete markers found elsewhere in Montgomery County are the same type that existed in River Road. I showed him a picture of a Gibson Grove marker (see Figure 7) and he replied, “Yeah, yeah, like that. Back then, that’s basically what all of them looked like, just what you’ve got right there.”
The historical rural African American cemetery is distinct from all of its contemporary counterparts.37 It reflects beliefs forged in the forced acculturation of Africans deported from their homelands and enslaved in the Americas as well as a socioeconomic status that left grieving family members and communities with little means for memorializing the dead. African American cemeteries also are a visceral reminder that white supremacy and segregation didn’t end at death. For much of American history, Black burial spaces remained separate from white ones.
Location
The River Road Moses Cemetery is located in Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland (Figure 1). The historic property spans two separate tax parcels, P175 and P177, located between Westbard Avenue and River Road
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