RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maryland >> Montgomery County >> Homecrest >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Homecrest, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Homecrest and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Homecrest:
    • 39.090386, -77.055256
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Homecrest
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Montgomery County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery County
    • Since Homecrest is near Howard County and also Prince George's County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Howard County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Prince George's County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Homecrest

Communities Also Named Homecrest ...

We found two communities that are also named Homecrest.

There is one other community in Maryland that is also named Homecrest.

Beyond Maryland, there is another community also named Homecrest in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Maryland ...
    • Baltimore County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Maryland community of Homecrest [Baltimore County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • New York
      • Kings County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the New York community of Homecrest [Kings County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Homecrest ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • English Manor
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • English Manor is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for English Manor
  • Foxhall
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Foxhall is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foxhall
  • Gayfields
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Gayfields is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gayfields
  • Glenallen
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Glenallen is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenallen
  • Harmony Hills
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Harmony Hills is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harmony Hills
  • Hermitage Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Hermitage Park is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hermitage Park
  • Lutes
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Lutes is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lutes
  • Manor Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Manor Park is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manor Park
  • Manor Village
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Manor Village is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manor Village
  • Rock Creek Village
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Rock Creek Village is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Creek Village
  • Springwood
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Springwood is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Springwood
  • Stoney Brook
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Stoney Brook is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stoney Brook
  • Sycamore Creek
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Sycamore Creek is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sycamore Creek

How Far From Homecrest to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Homecrest to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Homecrest and extending to:

  • Rockville, which is the Seat of Montgomery County, lies just to the West.
  • Annapolis, which is the State Capital of Maryland, lies 31 miles [49.9 km]<2> to the east southeast (ESE). If you could walk a straight line from Homecrest to Annapolis, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 13 miles [20.9 km] to the south (S). The buggy would take four to five hours and walking would take 6 hours.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,890 miles [9,479 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,596 miles [10,615.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,473 miles [7,198.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Homecrest could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Homecrest) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<4>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Homecrest to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Homecrest. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.0904, Longitude: -77.0553       In this case, the coordinates for Homecrest have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.888 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.467 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.647 degrees.