Wheaton, Maryland

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Location of Wheaton-Glenmont, Maryland

Wheaton is an unincorporated, urbanized area in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, north of Washington, D.C., northwest of Silver Spring. Wheaton takes its name from Frank Wheaton (1833-1903), a career officer in the Union Army who rose to the rank of major-general while serving before, during, and after the American Civil War.

Wheaton's boundaries are not officially defined. The United States Census Bureau has not chosen to make Wheaton itself into a Census-Designated Place, but instead combines it with Glenmont into a single Wheaton-Glenmont CDP, centered at 39°3′N, 77°3′W, whose 2000 census population was 57,694. According to Rand McNally, the Greater Wheaton area (which extends beyond Wheaton-Glenmont CDP) had an estimated population of 134,800 in 2005. The United States Geological Survey, however, does consider Wheaton as a place whose center is at latitude 39°2′23″N, 77°3′20″W. The United States Postal Service has assigned Zip 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), and Georgia 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; and Brookside 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 of Wheaton High School [1], part of the Montgomery County Public Schools [2] and located near the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Randolph 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.[citation needed] Wheaton was also the home of the first regularly scheduled television service in the United States.

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