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How a flood threatened to knock the Scotland community's center of faith off the map

Scotland AME Zion – a church on the side of Seven Locks Road with a rich, but little-known history – was damaged in 2019 by a catastrophic flood.

SCOTLAND, Md. — For a century now, Scotland AME Zion has been the church on the side of the road with a rich, but little-known history.

On July 7, 2019, a catastrophic flood threatened to knock this resilient center of faith off the map.

“We’ve always had problems with the water flooding inside the church but this time, it was different," said LaTisha Gasaway Paul, a fifth generation Scotland descendant.

This flood of all floods hit during the morning rush.

The D.C. area was swollen by a month’s worth of rain that fell in just one hour and the Scotland AME Zion Church in Potomac was caught in the currents.

The church was built by the hands of newly freed African Americans back in 1924 but on that humid July day, the impact of a hydrodynamic load tore through it’s very foundation.

Gasawal Paul said she couldn't understand why this was happening to the Scotland church. She said, "We’ve gone through so many things.”

Bernard Scott married into the Scotland Community and said, "The water came and the building was murdered. And I use that term because it was not an accident. That happened because of the way they constructed the road and the way they constructed the homes on the hill.”

At the heart of the Scotland Community is the Scotland A.M.E. Zion Church. The original church was built in 1924 and its 1963 extension is one of the last early structures created by this community.

In the 1980s, Montgomery County re-routed Seven Locks Road around and several feet above the church.

On July 7, 2019, a catastrophic flood threatened to knock this resilient center of faith off the map.

The Scotland Community needs to raise $10 million to flood proof the landscape, restore the church and build a new community center space.

If you would like to support the Scotland Second Century Project, click here.

Credit: Friends of Scotland

Sarah Sims gave the land to build the original church in 1917. She got the land from her former enslavers.

Scotland founding families would acquire the land around this church and beyond reaching over 500 acres between Potomac, Bethesda and Rockville.

Montgomery County and developers knew this area was valuable land. 

The Reverend Dr. Evalina Huggins is Scotland AME Zion's pastor. She said, “The members were really not in a position to battle with the county or the government. And so they had no idea that the ultimate result would be their church’s flooding. And so they gave up the property here, under the guise that we’re going to give you a road to extend your property and build a new road. It didn’t benefit the church in the way that the members thought.”

Yvonne Arrington Heard is a 4th Generation Scotland descendant. She said, “It hurts because we didn’t matter. There was no concern for what would happen when they made the changes.”

Credit: Friends of Scotland

The original church built in 1924 and its 1963 extension are still standing – one of the last early structures created by this community.

The flooded church on the side of Seven Locks Road got the attention of Glenstone founder and one of the Washington Commanders new owners, Mitch Rales.

Huggins said, “It was important for him to hear our story, and how we had been treated as a church and as a community, It became part of a story, I lived here and I didn’t know that. And so I have an obligation to do my part to make sure that that doesn’t happen again. What you are seeing now is a complete work of the elevation the church. The goal is to elevate the church equal to Seven Locks Road.”

Three years after the floods that nearly wiped away this symbol of hope, and with support from members of Scotland AME Zion, Rales and other leaders broke ground on an effort called the 2nd Century Project.

They need to raise $10 million to flood proof the landscape, restore the church and build a new community center space.

The work on this construction site is expected to be completed later this year.

Credit: Friends of Scotland

There is a cemetery located behind the church. 

"The descendants of those persons who are still members here. and members of the Scotland community they are resting here behind the church," Huggins said, "In honor of all of of the persons buried there, the church established one large headstone.”

As the work continues, Scotland families look forward to the day they can finally return to the place that makes them whole.

Heard is looking forward to the day the church doors reopen. 

She said, "The smell of the building and the peace that like when you go home in the evening, and you shut the door in your house, all of that will be when I can get back into church.”

Gasaway Paul said, “The baptisms, the weddings, I have pictured of my grandfather walking one of my older aunt’s down the aisle at that church. My mother was married in that church.”

“This may not be one of the wonders of the world. But it’s certainly going to be a wonder in Montgomery County because they’re gonna wonder how we survived. As long as the church is here, the hearts are still here,” said Scott.

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