Rockville

Book excerpt: As a suburb of the nation's capital in the late 1800s, Rockville was proclaimed a "peerless" place to live; its subsequent transformation into a city all its own is equally remarkable. Starting out as a tiny colonial crossroads village, it gained stature as the county seat and evolved into a town. Construction of a train line to Washington spurred suburbanization--even resort hotels. Then the automobile and post-World War II boom rapidly turned it into a full-fledged city, with much of its identity tied to the bustling Rockville Pike, a region-wide commercial mecca. As its downtown faltered, Rockville undertook a massive urban renewal makeover--but with mixed results. Along the way, luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thurgood Marshall figured in Rockville's story, as did an escaped slave whose autobiography inspired the influential novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Rockville even once had an airport and a renowned mental hospital memorialized in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. A four-time All-America City awardee, Rockville is evolving still as one of the nation's most ethnically diverse cities.