You have probably walked or driven past 926 Wayne Avenue lots of times and never realized that the former 1938 house was the longtime headquarters of the Loyal Order of the Moose Silver Spring Lodge 658. The house and several other structures was recently demolished to make way for construction of the new Silver Spring Library.
I was inside the lodge only once to hear live music being performed. While I enjoyed the "down home" atmosphere and camaraderie, I didn't enjoy the smoking and never returned. A few weeks before the headquarters was demolished a couple of Silver Spring Historical Society colleagues and I toured the inside to take photos and to search for any Moose artifacts for the society's archives (with permission of the Montgomery County government, owner of the building).
The bar was covered with signatures left by, I presume, lodge members who had raised a toast at truly the last last call. The pool tables had been left in place, water pouring through the holes in the ceiling (it was raining the day of our visit) that had been made by the Silver Spring Fire Department as part of their training exercises.
One item that I really would have like to have acquired for SSHS was the large Loyal Order of the Moose logo that had been painted onto a sheet a opaque Plexiglas. It would have been extremely difficult to remove from the wall and besides, with no place to store it, was left to the wrecker's ball.
SSHS was fortunate to be able to retrieve the 1969 cornerstone that had been set into the rear addition added onto the original house. This was where the bar, pool hall and dance floor was located. I suspected that there might have been a "time capsule" placed behind the corner stone and, sure enough, workmen found a small metal band-aid box wrapped with black electrical tape (shown sitting on top of the cornerstone). Something is inside
As part of the 13th annual Montgomery County 2010 Heritage Days weekend, join the Spring Historical Society for our community's first time capsule opening in the 21st century! The time capsule's big reveal will take place on Saturday, June 26th, 3:00 pm, at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station, 8100 Georgia Avenue. Come and see what has been hidden for 41 years.
3 comments:
No one wanted those pool tables? What a waste! Why weren't they donated to a youth center or something?
I'm not going to even divulge what else was left in the lodge. Yes, it was wasteful.
Hi, I'm a first time visitor here. Thanks for this post.
I agree with Helene. I'm upset about the wasteful demolition of usable furniture, etc., in a county-owned building. I wonder how often something like this goes on. I'm sure the Salvation Army or Goodwill volunteers would have come in and taken the stuff.
Do you happen to know the person/govt agency/NGO I could contact to prevent such waste in the future? This has bothered me enough to write a comment in a blog, which I rarely do...
btw, looking forward to seeing what's in the time capsule!
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