The King Barn Dairy ‘MOOseum’, Boyds, Maryland

You have the museum, and you have the ‘MOOseum’.

Some of you are saying, “What in the world is a ‘MOOseum’?”

If you think that it has something to do with cows, you are mostly right.  Located in the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C., it is housed in a barn that was once state of the art that was originally part of a working farm.  James and Macie King bought the farm in 1913 from another family.  In 1926, the farm was destroyed by a fire.  James King rebuilt the farmhouse, and he rebuilt the barn that currently houses the museum.  Sadly, he passed away in 1962 leaving the farm to his wife and son.  Macie sold the farm to land speculators who rented the land to local farmers.  The land eventually came under the ownership of the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission.  The farm buildings went into disrepair, and the land that was once farmland would eventually become the Maryland Soccerplex.  Was all lost?  No.  Although the farmhouse and other buildings were destroyed, the barn was repaired, and the silo was rebuilt, and it became the home of the King Barn Dairy ‘Mooseum’.  Today, you can see the life of a dairy farmer.

Some of you are saying, “It is nice that they were able to save this barn and turn it into a museum, and it is nice that the farm was made into soccer fields and not houses as what normally happens in the Washington D.C. suburbs, but this is about a dairy farm.  It is not a railroad museum.  Therefore, I do not find this place very ‘MOOving’ and will not be visiting here.”

Well, you do have a good point.  Why would somebody who enjoys trains want to visit a museum that is about dairy farming?  It is unknown is a railroad ever passed through or by this farm with the nearest access in Germantown on the original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Line (now CSX), but it is many miles from the farm.  Even with the automobile, that is still a great distance away.  Why visit?

The King Barn Daily ‘MOOseum’ was erected on the site of a dairy farm.  It tells the life of dairy farming in the region which, if you have recently visited Montgomery County, Maryland, mostly developed into housing communities with very little agricultural land.  As you enter the barn, you will see it set up like a dairy barn with the cows in stalls being milked.  (In case you are wondering, they are not real cows.)  You see depicted the like of the farmers as well as the life of the dairy industry.  Then you see a model train display.

Some of you are saying, “A what?”

There is a model train display with a locomotive, a tank car, and a caboose painted in cow colors surrounding a farm.  There is along a display of the rail line from Union Station and the old train station on New Jersey Avenue (now gone) and the old train station in Eckington (also gone) to the train station at Point of Rocks, Maryland.

As you can see.  The ‘MOOseum’ not only shows you the story of dairy life in Montgomery County, Maryland, but it tells the life of the county itself, and you do not have to be a resident of Montgomery County to appreciate what this museum is all about.  It is open from May to October from 10:00am to 3:00pm on Saturday and 1:00pm to 4:00pm on the fourth Sunday of the month.   It is located at 18028 Central Park Circle inside the South Germantown Recreational Park next to the Maryland Soccerplex.  Admission is free, but they will gladly accept donations to keep this museum open for many generations to come.  Parking is on site, and the ‘mooseum’ is wheelchair accessible. You can get more information at https://www.mooseum.org/.

Be warned.  As you visit the King Barn Dairy MOOseum, you will not realize that you are in the suburbs of Washington D.C.  You will see the life of a dairy farmer.