- Wheaton, Maryland
Wheaton is an unincorporated, urbanized area in
Montgomery County, Maryland , USA, north ofWashington, D.C. , northwest of Silver Spring. Wheaton takes its name fromFrank Wheaton (1833-1903), a career officer in theUnion Army who rose to the rank ofmajor-general while serving before, during, and after theAmerican Civil War .Wheaton's boundaries are not officially defined. The
United States Census Bureau has not chosen to make Wheaton itself into aCensus-Designated Place , but instead combines it with Glenmont into a single Wheaton-Glenmont CDP, centered at coord|39|3|N|77|3|W|, whose 2000census population was 57,694. According toRand McNally , the Greater Wheaton area ("which extends beyond Wheaton-Glenmont CDP") had an estimated population of 134,800 in 2005. TheUnited States Geological Survey , however, does consider Wheaton as a place whose center is at latitude coord|39|2|23|N|77|3|20|W|. TheUnited States Postal Service has assignedZip Code 20902 to Wheaton but the Wheaton Post Office is part of the Silver Spring area. Downtown Wheaton can be found at the intersections of Veirs Mill Road (Md. Rt. 586), University Boulevard (Md. Rt. 193), andGeorgia Avenue (Md. Rt. 97).Wheaton is home to the Wheaton Regional Park, which includes a nature center; riding stables; dog park; a picnic area with
carousel and miniature train; an athletic complex with tennis bubble, ice rink, in-line skating rink, and ball fields; andBrookside Gardens , Montgomery County's award-winning 50-acre (200,000-m²) public display garden. Much of Wheaton was developed in the 1950s. In the 1960s its shopping center, Wheaton Plaza (now known as Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton), was the largest in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. Wheaton is also home to the Wheaton Regional Public Library. The diversity of the neighborhood is reflected by the high concentration of various ethnic restaurants located in Wheaton, as well as in the composition of the student body ofWheaton High School [http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/wheatonhs/] , part of theMontgomery County Public Schools [http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org] and located near the intersection ofGeorgia Avenue andRandolph Road .It is served by the Red Line of the
Washington Metro system. The Wheaton Metro station has the longest escalator in the Western Hemisphere.Fact|date=February 2008 Wheaton was also the home of the first regularly scheduled television service in the United States.Points of interest
*
Brookside Gardens
* Wheaton Regional Park
*Westfield Wheaton shopping mall (formerlyWheaton Plaza )External links
*http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/brookside/
*http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/facilities/regional_parks/wheaton/index.shtm
*http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/Stations/station.cfm?station=33
*http://www.wheatonmd.org/
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