Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1955-09-29
Areas Fantastic Growth
Began in 1913 with First
Big Housing Developments

five merchants were in business
in Wheaton.
Then, housing development fol-
lowed housing development at an
unprecedented rate. Brick ram
blers, glassed-in moderns, Cape
Gods, semi-detached two-stories-
planted in clumps called woods,
forests, estates" and Hills
brought scores of thousands of
fed-up Washington apartment
jewellers into the wonderland of
Suburbia.
Close on the heels of the new
residents came the new business
men-young and armed with big
ideas and $4,000 CT. business
loans. Soon the Wheaton Triangle
was packed with stores, and other
shopping centers were springing
up all over the area.
The biggest to date, the 500 mil
lion Wheaton Plaza, is now under
construction.
Today, Wheaton is like a child
who ate too much spinach and
outgreW all his clothes overnight.
Just about all the government
services set up to serve the sleepy
little crossroads of 10 years ago
are hopelessly inadequate for the
booming city of 1855.
The fiStfull of new elementary
schools built within the last few
years are now trimming over
with offspring of the new Whea-
tonites. The So million Wheaton
Junior-Senior High School, open
ed last year, had to put its sew
enth and eighth graders on half
sessions this fall, while waiting
for completion of still another
junior high school building.
Georgia Avenue has been re-
built into a high-speed thorough
fare, but the eaSt-WeSt roads
through Wheaton still clog traf-
fic for miles. Viers Mill Road is
now being widened and repaved,
and work is scheduled to start
on Old Bladensburg Road soon.
Parking space, thought more
than ample by the pioneers" of
the late 40s and early SOS who
designed the first shopping cen
tiers, is now almost impossible to
find during popular shopping
hours. \
And still, more stores are plan
ned and built. Most have custo-
mer parking, but there is no over
all planning, nothing to insure an
orderly development of the COM
mercial center.
The Wheaton Chamber of Com
merce, headed this year by Vic
tor Leisner, is concerned with the
problem of orderly development.
Its public improvements chair
man, Thomas C. Oyster, recently
presented the Chamber with an
overall plan for new free park
ing lots strategically located with
in the commercial district, which
was quickly approved by the
chamber. Mr.. Oyster, former
Chamber president and the head
of a Wheaton engineering and
surveying firm, is deeply con-
cerned with the problem of keep
ing Wheaton from becoming a
hodge-podge of shops and shop
ping centers.
Water service to the Wheaton
Glenmont area will be increased
and made more dependable this
June, when a new water reSer-
voir tank will go into operation.
The Washington Suburban SAM
tary Commission expects con-
struction of the tank, which will
almost double the capacity of two
tanks now in operation, to begin
within a month or so.
The Montgomery County Pol
ice Department at present is not
stated to furnish adequate pol
ice protection to Wheaton. Bust
ness and civic leaders there are
currently agitating for the con-
struction of a combined police
sub.station and County service