Olney

Olney, along with its smaller neighbors Sandy Spring and Brookeville, lies in the northeast of Montgomery County, Maryland. All three are quiet, wealthy towns and exurbs of Washington, D.C., home to a good-sized Quaker population, and with a more rural, slow-paced character than other suburbs of D.C.

Understand
This area's first European settlement was a Quaker community in Sandy Spring in the early eighteenth century. Nearly one century later, a Quaker couple of the names Thomas and Deborah Brooke founded both the town of Brookeville and the village of Olney (named after the hometown Ms. Brooke's favorite English poet, William Cowper). During the first half of the nineteenth century, Sandy Spring in particular was an important stop on the Underground Railroad, as the Quakers (the Society of Friends) were devoted abolitionists and early proponents of racial equality in America. Long a sleepy agricultural area, Olney in the second half of the twentieth century outgrew its neighbors by a large margin, becoming an home for affluent D.C. commuters.

By car
Car is the only way to travel in this area, and MD-97 (Georgia Ave) is the principal north-south route cutting through both Olney and Brookeville, and coming up from Washington, D.C. via Wheaton/Aspen Hill. The most prominent east-west route is MD-108 (Olney-Latonsville Rd/Ashton Rd), which connects with I-95 via MD-32 (Patuxent Fwy).

By bus
A few bus routes will get you here from D.C., but you will likely need someone to pick you up by car once you get there.

The Z2 Metrobus runs straight from the Silver Spring Metro Red Line station to the intersection of MD-97 and MD-108, traveling mainly along New Hampshire Ave. The Y2, Y7, Y8 Metrobus routes travel to the same intersection, and also just beyond to Montgomer General Hospital, but do so from the Glenmont station (last stop on the Metro Red Line), traveling along Georgia Ave.

Sleep
Oddly enough, there are no hotels in the area, the closest being in Rockville or Bethesda, each about a 20-minute drive away.