Getting to know Friends House in Sandy Spring, Maryland

Friends House is a unique place. Our setting is rural yet we are close to all the benefits of an urban location. Within 45 minutes of both Baltimore and Washington, D.C., Friends House residents enjoy the cultural and educational opportunities afforded by our metropolitan location.

Our community of Sandy Spring has a rich and diverse history. Settled in the 1720's by members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, gave a distinctive character to the area through their peaceful and industrious presence. “Sandy Springers” made significant contributions to Maryland's political, economic, cultural, social, and religious history. They established places of worship and schools, organized banking and insurance companies, made influential improvements in farming techniques, patented innovative products, and erected substantial homes. Sandy Spring was one of main Underground Railroad trails that funneled slaves from the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia through the District of Columbia and north across Montgomery County. Numerous Sandy Spring Quakers, who had largely freed their slaves by the early 1800s and who often were ardent abolitionists, secretly opened their homes and outbuildings to the runaways. Blacks acquired freedom and worked their own or others' farms. Together across the centuries these neighbors interacted to spin the distinctive web of relationships and institutions that define today's Sandy Spring community.

Adjacent to the Friends House Retirement Community campus is the Sandy Spring Friends School, also under the care of the Religious Society of Friends. Friends House benefits from the association with the school, their activities, programs and interactions with the residents throughout the school year.

Sandy Spring is in the heart of Montgomery County and located just east of Olney. Located just 40 minutes from Baltimore Washington International (BWI) Airport. Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles International Airport are both located within an hour of Sandy Spring.