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 …