Damascus started as a dairy farm town with segregated one and two room schoolhouses where many people earned their living as blacksmiths, carriage makers, peddlers, ice harvesters, milk deliverers and mill owners and workers.
Two hundred years of that history is displayed in a former Montgomery County portable school building tucked away behind the Damascus Library and Senior Center off Main Street.
The Damascus Heritage Society Museum will close temporarily in about one month. Thanks to an easement, a 20-year lease and money from the county and area donors, the museum then will be expanded in the rear to include space for an office and research as well as storage.
Opened in 2009, the museum volunteers change exhibits every few months to concentrate on a particular aspect of the town’s history. Often the exhibits are filled with family and business memorabilia loaned by family members for the duration of the exhibit.
A large aerial photograph taken Dec. 11, 1937 under the direction of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt currently is displayed as are many before and after photographs of Main Street.
Since that photograph was taken, the town transformed from being home to 70 dairy farms to the current one. Like much of the area, Damascus has been home to plantations with slaves and segregated schools
The town of Damascus was founded in 1816 when 14 lots were laid out by the founder and first postmaster, Edward Hughes.
Original Damascus School Bus Carriage
