In the 1960s Rockville experimented with a new zoning concept to promote the creation of entire neighborhoods. Planned Residential Units (PRUs) encouraged variation in types of housing, shopping facilities nearby residential neighborhoods, open park areas, and buried utilities. College Gardens (along with Woodley Gardens, Rockshire, and others nearby) was one of the early Planned Residential Units in Rockville.
The first planning activity for College Gardens took place in the early 1960s, with the first approved development plan in 1964. By 1967, the street layout and lot divisions were set and construction of the first houses was under way. The builder responsible for the planning was the Artery Organization, and even though “College Gardens” was the legal name used by the City on surveys and plats, Artery decided to call the property “Plymouth Village” to be consistent with their Early American real estate marketing theme. Since all the marketing brochures and newspaper ads used that term, most new homeowners told their friends they had bought a home in “Plymouth Village”. After a few years, residents settled on referring to their neighborhood as “College Gardens” instead. The last homes in College Gardens were completed around 1972.
Seven model homes were built and used to demonstrate the amenities available in “Plymouth Village” homes, including “pre-wired telephone outlets”, “simulated marble-top vanities”, and the proverbial (stainless steel) “kitchen sink”.
The choice of the name for the property. The following is an excerpt from the florid prose of the Plymouth Village sales brochure:
Declaration for a better home……
….Welcome to Plymouth Village.. Enchanting colonial homes in the captivating Hunt country of Montgomery County. It is with great pleasure that we show you Plymouth Village: homes built on land unchanged by time, steeped in tradition and embroidered by antiquity, land that two hundred men and women from England first settled upon, land that was paid for with a bag of Indian arrowheads and a fifth of all the silver it produced, land where George Washington took time off from his weighty duties to relax and enjoy the Hunt, fertile land that produced the richest tobacco crop of a young, growing America, and land where Revolutionary battles were fought by the “Minute Men” to preserve their freedom.
Plymouth Village Homes, built on a strong historical, as well as architectural foundation, are designed out of an era of gracious living, homes made beautiful by the simple yet rich heritage of our colonial past.
Plymouth Village Homes have bridged the gap between the excellent location and the right home at the right price. Plymouth Village is situated in one of the finest sections of Montgomery County in an area just between Bethesda and Potomac, only 30 minutes from the downtown capital of the world. Your Plymouth Village Home is part of a community that abounds in wooded land. It is near shopping centers, community and cultural activities, pleasure filled recreation centers and country clubs, the county’s finest schools, sites of worship for all faiths, and major government, industrial and private businesses. Plymouth Village Homes are large and spacious — colonial in style but existing for you today; enjoy the charm and beauty of eighteenth century renditions, renditions that are not actual copies but reflect the art of the colonial period, for the decorative importance of colonial architecture lies not only in its historical romance but in its adaptability to contemporary convenience and decoration. Plymouth Village colonial and traditionally designed homes stress perfection of form and proud craftsmanship. With an abundance of space and a freedom of movement, these homes are built for the discriminating family, homes displaying the grace, strength, balance and satisfying proportions characteristic of the best 18th century living, homes that are an investment in gracious living
