The North Woodside Roots & Shoots group invites neighbors to take part in a participatory community art project.
The “Thankful Tree” the group constructed last weekend can be found in the green space at 3rd Ave. and Lanier Dr.
The kids worked hard cutting out and painting lots of leaves for the tree and enjoyed writing things they are thankful for on many of them…family…friends…vecinos…good tasting food…love…and more!
The kids would be thrilled if neighbors added more leaves to the Thankful Tree: What are you thankful for? Write on a painted leaf and attach to the tree!
Extra leaves can be found, along with a few permanent markers, in a box underneath the bench. Please tie tightly to branches so they don’t blow off.
Begun in 2018, the Talbot Avenue Bridge Lantern Walk is an annual local community event that weaves together neighborhoods once divided by racial segregation. All are welcome! Come join us in shining our lights in the darkness, promoting unity over division, remembering the past and taking steps toward a brighter future…
WHEN: Saturday, November 12, 2022* Gather by 5:15pm,Lantern Walk will commence soon after
WHERE: 4th Avenue and Hanover Street (North Woodside) to Talbot Avenue (Lyttonsville), via Brookville Road View Route
See below for three different ways to participate
BRING: Warm clothing, a lantern, and a bell to ring, if you have one
Note: Any type of lantern will do, from a tea light candle in a glass jar to something more elaborate, either handmade or store-bought. You can find many ideas online: bit.ly/HomemadeLanterns. If you have the time and energy, we encourage you to get creative! Extra lanterns and tea light candles will be available for anyone who needs them.
* Rain date: Sunday, November 13, 2022 (any event updates will be posted to bit.ly/TABLanternWalk)
Ways to Participate
Residents of Lyttonsville, North Woodside, and Rosemary Hills are invited to participate in one of three ways:
1) Join for the whole lantern walk. As the route is not a loop, residents of North Woodside will need to walk back or have someone pick you up in Lyttonsville.
2) Join for a portion of the lantern walk. For example, residents of North Woodside can join for the portion that goes through the neighborhood (e.g. 4th Ave -> Warren St/A Wider Circle).
3) Watch the lantern walk pass by. Neighbors who live along the route can come out of their homes to watch, wave, and hold a candle or lantern of their own in solidarity. Neighbors who live elsewhere can come stand along the lantern walk route and do the same.
Safety Precautions
Any young children who participate should be closely supervised by adults. And organizers encourage participants to RSVP ahead of time at bit.ly/TABLanternWalk, so they have a good sense of expected numbers and can adjust safety precautions accordingly.
Check out videos of past Talbot Avenue Bridge Lantern Walks:
1st Talbot Avenue Bridge Lantern Walk (2018). Video by David Rotenstein
4th Talbot Avenue Bridge Lantern Walk (2021). Video by Jay Mallin
Today, we made the hard decision to CANCEL the Montgomery Hills Street Fest. While we could deal with light rain, the forecast is calling for heavy rain and high winds, and therefore we are postponing the Fest until Spring 2023. While Ian is dampening our fun, our thoughts are first and foremost with those in the wake of the storm.
Here is our plan going forward:
Don’t head to the Fest, instead head to Denizens and join us at the ‘Ian Can’t Defeat Us‘ Meet-up from 3 pm until 6 pm
Order food from Meleket and Nothing Bundt Cakes, both of these local businesses planned to sell and share food at the Street Fest, let’s show them our support!
Come to First Fridays! They’re BACK – look for upcoming information about November and December dates at MoHills restaurants
Montgomery Hills Business Roundtable – coming this fall!
2023 MH Street Fest Take 2 – Stay tuned for the date
Unfortunately, canceling the Fest means that we lose a significant amount of the funding we raised because we are obligated to still pay for the tents, tables, chairs, sound equipment, and porta-potties we rented. We are grateful to our generous donors — without whom we could not have a Fest. Once we have paid all non-refundable costs, we will bank the remaining funds for use for a 2023 Spring Street Fest. All donors will be recognized for the future Fest.
Thank you for donating your time to volunteer and money to support the Street Fest! Everyone is welcome to join us at Denizens to celebrate our wonderful community where we all get to live and work and commit to making the Georgia Avenue corridor a safe, pleasant, and vibrant place to be!
UPDATE 9/28/22: The Montgomery Hills Street Fest has been postponed to Spring 2023 (exact date TBD) due to weather.
After a two-year hiatus, the Montgomery Hills Street Fest is back! Mark your calendars for:
Snapshot of 2019 Montgomery Hills Street Fest
Saturday, October 1st from 3:00 – 7:00 pm
Location: Columbia Boulevard (between 16th Street and Seminary Road)
WE NEED YOU…
To ATTEND this year’s Montgomery Hills Street Fest
Visit our website to find out more about the music, activities, and food at this year’s Fest
To VOLUNTEER to help ensure our Street Fest is a blast for everyone!
Visit the sign-up to choose a 1-hour shift to help ensure we have smooth event
There will be great food and drinks for all who fest!
Denizens, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Meleket, Fred’s Ice Cream, Silver Spring Wings are just some of the foods and drinks you can sample while you are enjoying the music, meeting neighbors, browsing the vendor tables, playing games, and making art.
Sights to See: Natural Wonders, e.g. “The Niagara of North Woodside,” viewable whenever the sky really unleashes.
Want to know where some famous people grew up? Which house still has an old horse hitch and well in back? Where the hidden stream flows? Where to find some delicious guava, mango, or soursop ice cream on a hot and sultry day?
Discover the humble wonders of our very own neighborhood in The Staycationer’s Guide to North Woodside. Written and organized like a tourist guide book—Sights to See (Natural Wonders, Historical Sites, Botanical Gardens), Things to Do, Where to Eat, and How to Get Around—the guide’s 27 pages contain almost 60 things* to see and do around the neighborhood—something for all ages and staycation inclinations!
How to Get Around: By bike! Need a tune up? Contact Freewheeling Bike Tune-Ups, a free service of North Woodside resident Manuel Vera.
The guide was a fun little summer pandemic project a couple years ago for North Woodside resident Anna White. This summer it may be of particular interest to any new neighbors wishing to get to know their new home better, anyone who’s had their vacation plans scuttled by airline cancellations or Covid, and parents and caregivers of young children looking for ideas for simple, fun, and creative activities to pass away downtime.
North Woodside residents and NWCA members who are subscribed to the neighborhood listserv can access the guide in the listserv’s online file section (Click on the “Fun” folder). A digital or hard copy can also be requested by sending an email to the NWCA Communications Coordinator.
Enjoy the Local Art Scene: Check out the painted stones around the neighborhood!
Thanks again to all the neighbors who provided information for the guide! If after skimming through it you’d like to suggest additional North Woodside-related history, places, things, or activities to include in an updated version, please do!
For a few more things to do and see listed in The Staycationer’s Guide to North Woodside, see below.
* Note: A few listings in the guide are now out-of-date. Likewise, there are a number of brand new neighborhood sights to see and things to do that are not listedand may be included in a future revised version.
Things to Do: Peruse Used Books. Visit one of the four little libraries in North Woodside. Above: Children read books found in the Philip F. Welsh Memorial Library.Participate in the Local Art Scene: Color in a North Woodside Coloring Page. Neighborhood resident Barry Galef created one for each of 12 neighborhood scavenger hunts that took place Spring 2020. The one above was for the Scavenger Hunt #1 (One-of-a-Kind Decorations).
Sights to See: Historical Sites, e.g. Houses That Mirror the History of Residential Architecture. Can you find the above Sears Kit House?Sights to See: Botanical Gardens. There are many small and beautiful gardens to be found in North Woodside through the seasons.Places to Eat: Tropics Ice Cream. The best tropical ice cream around!
Amy Henchey cuts the ribbon at the dedication of the North Woodside Memorial Bench in honor of her late husband, Woody Brosnan. Photo by Ryland Owen
On May 1, 2022, the NWCA Board and Community Design Committee dedicated the first North Woodside Memorial Bench, in honor of longtime community volunteer, Woody Brosnan. The short ceremony, held in the “pocket park” at the intersection of Lanier Drive and 3rd Avenue, included a ribbon cutting by Mr. Brosnan’s wife, current North Woodside resident and NWCA Secretary Amy Henchey, plus memories of Mr. Brosnan’s dedication to local service by neighbor Gus Bauman.
If you would like to contribute to the cost of the bench you may make a donation to the NWCA’s new Neighborhood Beautification and Memorial Fund. To donate by check or PayPal, follow the directions on our NWCA Dues page.
NWCA President Genevieve McDowell Owen and NWCA Secretary and Woody Brosnan’s wife Amy Henchey sit on the first North Woodside Memorial Bench while other board members, Community Design Committee members, and neighbors pose behind. Photo by Anna White
State delegates Al Carr, Lorig Charkoudian, and Jared Solomon point to the new speed limit sign on Georgia Ave. Photo by Michelle Desiderio Foster
The first of the long-awaited Georgia Ave. improvements in Montgomery Hills was implemented recently when the State Highway Administration (SHA) lowered the speed limit to 30 mph (from 35 mph) on Georgia Ave. from Spring St. to Wheaton. This speed limit was recommended in the Planning Department’s Montgomery Hills/Forest Glen Sector Plan adopted a few years ago. The speed reduction was just one of the significant improvements proposed for the corridor, including a green median, removal of the unsafe reversible lanes, wider sidewalks, a cycle track on the west side of the road, pedestrian-safety enhancements, a reconfigured Beltway interchange, and a new traffic light at Flora Lane.
A completed SHA design is expected by the end of 2022. Funding has been allocated for most of the necessary right-of-way acquisitions, and the county and state are cooperating to secure funds for utility relocation and construction. U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen secured one million dollars in federal funding for the project in the recent infrastructure bill that Congress approved. Utility relocation could start as early as January 2024. State Delegates Jared Solomon and Lorig Charkoudian have worked tirelessly on this project to ensure that it continues to move forward and to secure necessary funding.
State delegates Al Carr, Lorig Charkoudian, Jared Solomon and State Highway Administration employees pose near the new speed limit sign on Georgia Ave. Photo by Michelle Desiderio Foster
Adding a bump out and a stop sign will convert this intersection to an all-way stop. Image provided by Oscar Yen, MCDOT
The NWCA Traffic Committee and six neighbors met with Oscar Yen, an engineer in the Traffic Engineering Studies Section of the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT), on April 13 to review pedestrian safety and traffic-calming measures at key neighborhood intersections.
Read on for highlights from his summary evaluation and recommendations, which include conducting a speed study on Luzerne near Louis and preparing a work order to add crosswalks with proper striping and/or stop-bar markings at the intersections listed below. (MCDOT will also perform another traffic study for all-way stop controls and other traffic-calming mitigations once Woodlin Elementary School and the Talbot Ave. bridge reopen and heavier traffic resumes.)
Louis and Luzerne Examine the feasibility of a curb bump out on Louis at the stop sign and trim foliage blocking the stop sign and the east leg approach of Luzerne.
Louis-Glen Ross-3rd-Warren Build a bump out at the southeast corner of the intersection of 3rd Ave. and Glen Ross Rd. to convert this intersection to an all-way stop control and address the no-stop condition for Warren St.
Luzerne-Louis-Lanier Create a bump out to reconfigure the intersection to a 90-degree T-shape, and possibly relocate the stop sign to increase its visibility.
Hanover and 3rd Readjust the crooked stop signs and research a more visible location for the sign on Hanover near the fire hydrant.
Grace Church and 3rd Add stop-bar street markings to help draw attention to existing stop signs, especially when foliage obscures them.
Talbot Ave. Bridge MCDOT will conduct a traffic study once the bridge reopens and evaluate for additional traffic-calming measures.
I’m having an impromptu art show for the young artists in my art camp this week. They assembled (doll) houses and created a theme, designing and creating all the accessories for the rooms. They are turning out amazing!
They worked so hard and I thought it would be nice to showcase their work on the last day of camp.
What: (Doll) House Art Show Where: Bertie’s Art Studio 2002 Hanover (backyard) When: Friday, July 15 at 3:30-4:00 pm
Welcome to North Woodside 