In the early 1870s, a group of Methodists from the District of Columbia bought a farm for a camp-meeting site along the Metropolitan Branch of the B&O Railroad near Gaithersburg. The first camp meeting was held in 1873. A tent colony was established around the “Sacred Circle,” where a Tabernacle was constructed a few years later. The tents soon were converted to cottages, as Washington Grove became a summer resort and later a part of the Chautauqua circuit. In 1937, the Washington Grove Camp Meeting Association dissolved, and the town was incorporated with the government of the town being vested in the Town Meeting, an arrangement that was unique in the State of Maryland.

Land use in Washington Grove is unusual. More than half of the town is publicly owned—parks abound, and the East Woods and West Woods are the only municipality-owned forests in Maryland. The West Woods contain spring-fed Maple Lake, where the town’s children learn to swim.

Preservation of the town’s heritage and lifestyle has required participation by everyone. A master plan that sets forth a vision of the future was written in 1975 and revised in 1995. In 1980 the entire town was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.