Silver Spring's Georgia Avenue in Miniature

Since our establishment in 1998, the Silver Spring Historical Society has acquired many unusual artifacts that document the history of our community.  The 1946 mahogany Ladies and Men's bathroom doors from Tastee Diner?  We have them.  A 1938 art deco-designed lobby door from the Silver Theatre?  We have it.  A 1946 industrial metal and glass door from the Canada Dry Bottling Plant?  We have it.

And yes, we have more than just doors.

The 1965 cornerstone from the Gramax Building (today's Gramax Towers at 8060 13th Street), the 1937 cast-aluminum lobby plaque from the Silver Spring Post Office (building extant at 8412 Georgia), and a colorful hand-painted 1970s wooden sign from Roadhouse Oldies' Thayer Avenue location.

These items and many more have long been in storage and thus unavailable for viewing by the public. Several years ago an offer was extended to place the artifacts on long-term loan for display in the new Silver Spring Library but nothing came of it. Over the past few years our board has been diligently working on securing a headquarters space of our own and that goal may actually come to fruition but will require SEVERAL more years before it actually happens.

Recently the SSHS has been offered yet another artifact which, even though we currently have no idea where it can be stored, we HAVE to accept it; a 24' long x 6' (at the widest) HO scale model train layout that reproduces in amazing detail how Silver Spring's Georgia Avenue looked in the 1940s!

The first time I saw this layout was in 2003 when the owner, who lives in neighboring Frederick County, invited me to his home.  I was stunned as to not only the overall size of it, but the historical accuracy of many of the structures.  Its creator spent over a decade constructing it and reproduced in detail many of the buildings that he knew from growing up in downtown Silver Spring in the 1940s.

But enough talk.  Let me take you on a visual tour of the model train layout.

While the roundhouse/train yard in the foreground does not recreate structures that ever existed (its purpose simply is to allow the model trains to turn around), once the trains cross the Georgia Avenue underpass recognizable structures commence.

View looking north up Georgia Avenue from the south side of the underpass.

View looking south down Georgia Avenue from Sligo Avenue.

An incredible amount of detail was put into the creation of Silver Spring's 1945 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad passenger station (8100 Georgia Avenue) including its demolished east bound station and the extant pedestrian tunnel that connected the two structures.

South elevation of the station as viewed from Georgia Avenue.

Running to catch his train!

Train is arriving at the platform!

Across Georgia Avenue from the station is the 1927 Maryland News newspaper building (today part of Jackie's Sidebar Restaurant, 8081 Georgia) and next door Faye & Andy's Garden Restaurant (today Lotus Cafe, 8077 Georgia, and still with outdoor seating!).

On the northeast corner of Georgia and Sligo is the legendary Gifford's Ice Cream (today Quality Time Early Learning, 8101 Georgia).  The depicted stone retaining wall is extant and wraps around the corner.

At the opposite end of the block from Gifford's is the 1915 Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Department (today Fire Station 1 Restaurant & Brewing Co., 8131 Georgia).  The detail of this building is particularly stunning.

Silver Spring Avenue elevation.

Crossing Georgia Avenue again, we stand in front of the 1925 Hunter's Hardware, whose facade was remodeled in 1949 (today Dor-ne Corset Shoppe, 8126 Georgia, "From hardware to underwear" as I point out on my walking tour).

On the northwest corner of Georgia and Ripley sat the equally legendary 1935 Little Tavern Hamburgers, tragically demolished in 2003 by its owner who failed to sell it on eBay (but the gravel footprint of the building is still there).

Further up the street is the 1935 Peoples' Drug (today Capital One Bank, 8315 Georgia, who admirably restored and incorporated the facade into new construction in 1996).

Looking south down Georgia from Thayer Avenue.  Pay no attention to the giant swan or man in the distance.

This is the 8200 block of Georgia between Ripley and Bonifant where was located the recently closed Dale Music.  Here was located Silver Spring's first movie theater, the SECO, opened in 1927.  At the end of the block is Silver Spring's oldest bank, Suburban Trust as it was in the 1940s.  All of these structures are extant except for the brown brick building next to the bank, and ALL are scheduled for demolition next year for construction of a singular, glass mixed-use development.

North end of Georgia at Bonifant Street where the model train tracks turn around.

I think you will agree that this is an amazing model train layout that fully displays the love put into it by its creator.  The SSHS is grateful to be entrusted with this heirloom but have a big task ahead of us in disassembling, transporting, and most important of all, storing it for an estimated period of five years.

If anyone can offer assistance in the form of a cargo van (in which can be transported three 8' x 4'  and two 8' x 2' plywood tops and an assortment of framing 2' x 4's, 2' x 8's, and 6' x 8's) or know of long-term and secure storage where these pieces may be kept, please contact me.  

Future generations will appreciate your help.

Jerry A. McCoy

President

Silver Spring Historical Society

sshistory@yahoo.com

301.537.1253

The Big Engine that Did

One of the sites that I point out on my walking tour to Silver Spring's original "Silver" Spring is this section of mosaic mural located at the Georgia Avenue underpass (where Georgia dips under the Metro/CSX tracks). The murals were designed and put together by Arts on the Block youths that I worked with back in 2005 to incorporate Silver Spring images into the designs.

 

 

I have fun pointing out to tour participants that this iconic streamline modern locomotive never ran through Silver Spring as part of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad but was one of the New York Central Railroad's legendary "Hudson" locomotives. I'm sure the youths saw a photo of this engine, thought it was cool (which it is!), and decided to reproduce it in their mural.

This engine was designed by the famous industrial designer Henry Dreyfus. If you live in an older house you probably have a Dreyfus original hanging on your wall...his 1953 Honeywell T87 circular wall thermostat!

 

The next walking tour will be held on Saturday, October 5, 2013 from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Cost $10.00, children under 13 free. 

RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED.  Email sshistory@yahoo.com or call (301) 537-1253.

Tour begins at:

 

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station

8100 Georgia Avenue (at Sligo Avenue)

Silver Spring, MD  20910

(301) 537-1253  

So Monday Night I'm Gonna Party Like It's 1978

Here are some of the places that folks rang in the New Year thirty-four years ago in downtown Silver Spring.  All of the advertisements are from the pages of the December 29, 1978 The Suburban Record.

The Record, which started publishing in 1944, was located at 8505 Dixon Avenue in 1978.  Today this address is part of an office building located at 1010 Wayne Avenue.

The Silver Spring Historical Society owns a rare bound copy of this newspaper's run from 1978 that was generously donated by Chip Py a few years ago.  If anyone has copies of this important newspaper, please consider donating them to SSHS.

Spring Garden was located at 1160 Bonifant Street which is no longer extant, having been replaced by a portion of the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit Center.

Courtesy Silver Spring Singular

Villa Rosa was located at 813 Ellsworth Drive which is also long gone.  The restaurant was located about where Zpizza sits today.

Beacon Auto Body was located at 8111 Mayor Lane.  Beacon closed in 2010 after being in business for 38 years.  The building is still there (and empty) but not Beacon's awesome sign which was the side of the actual 1956 Nash Metropolitan automobile.  This car is in the collection of the SSHS and it has been offered, along with other vintage Silver Spring business signs, for permanent display in the to-be-constructed Silver Spring Library!

And lastly Mike offered a "Cheers" from 1052 Ripley Street, now the site of the Solaire Apartments.

Wherever you spend this New Year's Eve, may it be memorable!

Trash to Treasure

Every morning when I walk out of my house to pick up the Washington Post (Now where has it been flung today?) I never know what trash I will pick up out of my yard along with the newspaper. Usually though, said trash doesn't get accessioned into the collections of the Silver Spring Historical Society!  

This "Ladies Night Concert @ Lucy's" ticket for a party held last night at 8301 Georgia Avenue (known as Langano Ethiopian Restaurant during the day) will be added to the society's "8301 Georgia" vertical file as a great piece of early 21st century ephemera.  

Back in 1948 EVERY day was ladies day at 8301 when it operated as the Silver Spring location of the NorBud Shops, a women's undergarment store.

Over the past twenty years, 8301 has been a revolving door of restaurants with none of them seeming to last very long.  Anyone remember Mr. Minari American and Japanese Food when it opened in July 1998?  In February 2011 it became the short-lived Taste of Morocco which had relocated from City Place Mall.  Before the year was over it sequed into Marrakesh Restaurant whose food has now moved to the eastern side of the African continent and is presently Langano.  Somewhere in between Minari and Morocco it was a Jerry's Subs and Pizza.

The building itself was constructed in 1923 and features some really beautiful multi-hued cream/yellow/beige/brown brick that is only visible on the Thayer Avenue elevation.  This is some of the most beautiful commercial brickwork from the early 20th century still surviving on Georgia Avenue.  The Georgia Avenue elevation features the same brickwork but you wouldn't know for it has been encased for the past two decades in tacky wood siding painted dark brown.

Perhaps some year/decade a new owner of 8301 Georgia Avenue will give this building's exterior the sensitive restoration that it deserves.

Thayer Avenue Setting for New Work of Fiction Set in WW II

Last year New York author Cheryl A. Pula contacted me inquiring about an appropriate street in Silver SPring for the protagonist of her planned book, "The Ragged Irregulars:  The Eighth Air Force Series, Book Two." to live on.

Her character, Kelly Davenport, is an 18-year old bombardier with the 8th Air Force, the base's resident genius (IQ 189), and a Princeton graduate with a major in nuclear physics. The character is based on a real WW II veteran that the author interviewed.

Ms. Pula needed a WW II-era middle class neighborhood within walking distance of Montgomery Blair High School, from where Davenport graduated. She chose Silver Spring because she always liked the name of the town.  "My brother taught at Catholic University in D.C. for a while. My niece and her family are from Lanham, but just recently moved to Columbia, MD, so I am familiar with the modern day city, but I imagine it has changed immensely since WW II," Pula told me last year.

While Silver Spring's Central Business District has certainly changed over the past sixty plus years, I suggested that an excellent location for her character to live would be on Thayer Avenue in the Silver Spring Park, a neighborhood that physically has seen very few changes to its building stock.

Plated in 1904, it is still a tree-filled neighborhood sprinkled with bungalows and four squares and is within easy walking distance of MBHS. Oh, and the fact that I live in one of those bungalows...on Thayer Avenue.

I received a copy of the book yesterday in the mail and was tickled to see chapter one titled "Friday, 11 September 1936 Michael Davenport Residence, Thayer Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland." As far as I'm concerned, the Davenports lived in my house!  

Silver Spring Realia

Recently the Silver Spring Historical Society acquired this realia (library-speak for three dimensional object) with no information regarding its history.  Appearing to be an automobile license plate, I posted a query on the Facebook group page You know you grew up in Silver Spring when... to see if any of its members might know something about it.  A couple of months later local longtime resident Rick Nelson provided the information I sought supplemented by Rick Kretschmer's amazing web site ricksplates.com.

Collection of Silver Spring Historical Society

The state of Maryland started requiring the registration of automobiles in 1904 but it wasn't until 1910 that vehicles had to display state-issued plates.  Front and rear license plates were required from 1910 to 1943, 1948 to 1951, and 1956 on.  The only years that a single rear plate was required was 1944 to 1947 and 1952 to 1955.  Correctly I assumed that this plate was manufactured as a novelty to be placed on the front of a vehicle.  Perhaps a variety of front plates were sold as fundraisers by fraternal organizations, high schools, or simply given away by auto dealers and the like. 

Mr. Nelson remembers that when only single plates were required in 1954 and 1955, front plates could be purchased at any auto supply store.  In 1954 the state-issued rear plate was yellow on black and in 1955 it was black on yellow.  All of the other single plate years were monochromatic black and white.

Courtesy ricksplates.com.

Another example of a 1955 Maryland plate may be seen at http://alpca8123md.50webs.com.  When compared to the 1954 yellow on black plate next to it, the 1955 plate definitely looks more orange than yellow.  My guess then is that the society's plate was sold and used in 1955. 

Certainly there must be other versions of Silver Spring automobile plates out there, perhaps ones featuring the names of car dealerships or other local businesses.  If you own one, please let me know.  Thank you!

Silver Spring Heritage Trail Finally Gets Props in the Post

In April 2010 the Silver Spring Historical Society dedicated the first six signs of the Silver Spring Heritage Trail along historic "Main Street" Georgia Avenue.  In all there will be twenty signs located throughout downtown Silver Spring extolling the amazing hidden history that our community encompasses.

As the first designated heritage trail in Montgomery County, and one that the SSHS worked on for over a decade to create, our organization felt that the trail's dedication deserved coverage in The Washington Post which, of course, it did not receive.  Well, finally it has...sort of.

In today's "Local Living / Montgomery Edition" of the Post on p. 17 the article "Piratz Tavern bar gets a Spike TV makeover" appears with two photographs. One of the photos prominently shows our "Post Office 1936" sign in the foreground with the late Piratz Tavern in the background!

Of course to the uninformed reader no one would know what this sign is much less what is written on it.

Hopefully Montgomery County print readers of the Post who are curious about what the sign is will check it out in person and in the process will seek out the other five signs.  Stay tuned because two more heritage trails signs are in the works and will hopefully be dedicated later this year.

Delights to the Eye

"Takoma and Takoma Park, Silver Springs (sic) and Forest Glen are all picturesque and beautiful villages lying along or within the boundaries of Maryland. They are reached by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as well as by the trolley. During the summer season many of the people of Washington take up their residences there, where they live in the midst of nature and at the same time of civilization. Glimpses of rural scenery in these neighborhoods are a constant delight to the eye."

From "Every-day Life in Washington...with Pen and Camera" (p. 372) by Charles M. Pepper (New York: The Christian Herald, 1900).

Collection of The Peabody Room,
Georgetown Branch, DC Public Library.

Playing Christmas Day 1955 at the Silver Theater

Anyone who wants to go out to see a movie in downtown Silver Spring on Christmas Day has an overwhelming selection of film offerings. From sixteen different motion pictures at the Regal Majestic & IMAX to four films at the AFI Silver Theatre.

Fifty-six years ago Silver Spring filmgoers had far less options.  Playing at the Silver Theater (note the spelling difference) on December 25, 1955 was the Janet Leigh & Jack Lemmon musical My Sister Eileen.  This singing and dancing remake of the earlier 1942 film of the same name was about two Ohio sisters (Leigh and Betty Garrett) seeking success in the big city...and where else in 1955 was that but in NYC's Greenwich Village.

Maryland News, December 23, 1955, p. 5.
Microfilm collection of the Silver Spring Historical Society.

My favorite dance sequence in the film is when the legendary choreographer and sometimes actor Bob Fosse spars with actor/dancer Tommy Rall.  Rall will be 82 years-old on December 27th but Fosse sadly dropped dead of a heart attack in 1987 in front of the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC.  He was only 60 years-old. 

Interspersed between showings of My Sister Eileen was the George Montgomery and Nancy Gates western Masterson of Kansas, directed by the equally legendary William Castle.  Four years would pass before Castle really begin establishing his reputation with low-budget, over-the-top gimmicky thrillers such as House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler, both released in 1959.


Both of these Silver Theater/Theatre Christmas Day offerings were second run films with My Sister Eileen (appealing to a mostly female audience) being initially released the previous September and Masterson of Kansas, aimed at the guys, already being a year old having been released the previous Christmas.


The Silver's only other local competition was the Roth's Theatre at 8242 Georgia Avenue, originally opened in 1927 as the SECO (Suburban Electrical COmpany).  The SECO was the first movie theater to open in downtown Silver Spring and held the monopoly for eleven years until the Silver opened in 1938.


After the kids opened their Christmas presents that day and settled down for lunch they could shoot over to Roth's to catch the 2:00 pm Walt Disney hit Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, starring Fess Parker.  Even though the movie had ben released the previous May and was nothing more that a compilation of three Davy Crockett television episodes that aired on the ABC television show Disneyland, it was billed as "NOW...ON THE MOTION PICTURE SCREEN!"  I'm sure there were plenty of eight year-old boys wearing their coonskin caps in the theatre.

Later that evening the adults could catch Robert Taylor and Kaye Kendall in The Adventures of Quentin Durward, the story of a Scottish night (Taylor) who finds himself in France to facilitate a marriage between a rich and beautiful countess (Kendall) and his aging uncle, King Louis XI, played by Robert Morley.  Intrigue ensues.  No problem convincing the kids to miss that one.

If you REALLY wanted to see the first release films all one had to do was to catch the streetcar at Alaska and Eastern Avenue and head down to F Street, NW where the Loew's Palace (at 13th Street) and the Capital (at 14th Street) were respectively showing Rains of Ranchipur, a drama about an Englishwoman (Lana Turner!) having an affair with a Hindu doctor (Richard Burton!), and the Vincente Minnelli (Liza'a father) directed musical Kismet, starring Howard Keel and Ann Blyth.

Whatever motion picture you watch this Christmas Day, new release or old, in a movie theater, on television, via dvd or streaming, may it be an enjoyable ending to 2011!

A Silver Spring Christmas: 1955 Style

Maryland News, December 23, 1955.
Microfilm collection of the Silver Spring Historical Society.

Like this year, Christmas day fell on a Sunday in 1955.  Shoppers who had yet to complete their holiday purchases might have felt relieved when this advertisement for G. C. Murphy & Co. appeared in the Friday, December 23rd Maryland News.

This "five and dime" variety store was the namesake of George Clinton Murphy, who founded the business in 1906 in McKeesport, PA.  A national chain store that offered low-priced merchandise, Murphy's had been located at 8237 Georgia Avenue since 1937.

Murphy's occupied the ground floor of the MUCH altered building that still sits on the southeast corner of Georgia and Thayer avenues (originally contructed c. 1927 and named the Heizer Building after its owner, Roy M. Heizer).  It is  difficult to imagine all of the merchandise touted in this advertisement fitting into such a small building.

Adjusted for inflation, the advertised prices do not seem too dissimilar from what one would pay for the same items today.  That 67c nylon hosiery for your wife or girlfriend is equal to $5.66 and the high-end $5.98 all-metal wagon for little Dickie (or Sue) would be set you back $50.48.  Keep in mind that the national average wage in 1955 was $3,301.44 or $68.78 each week...before taxes.

Murphy's remained in the Heizer Building thru at least 1968.  Amazingly, no photographs of either the exterior or interior of this business that served our community for over three decades have surfaced.  If you have photos...or even reminiscences of shopping or working at this Murphy location...please share them here.

Montgomery Blair Coming to a Screen Near You?

Recently a research company working on Steven Spielberg's $100M motion picture Lincoln, to be released December 2012, contacted me. They are looking for an image of Montgomery Blair's "crest," a heraldic design that I've never come across.

If it ever existed, perhaps it looked something like these...

Blair family crest courtesy of 
http://www.allfamilycrests.com

Montgomery Blair High School crest
courtesy Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette

The question that begs to be asked though is does this mean that Blair, Lincoln's postmaster general from 1861-1864, will be in the film that is based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 biography Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln?  Montgomery is well represented in the book along with his father and brother, Frances (senior and junior), mother Eliza, brother James, and sister Elizabeth.

To my knowledge the last depiction of Montgomery Blair...at least on the small screen...was in 1955 when Mack Williams (I know, who?) played him in Lincoln's Doctor's Dog, an episode written by William R. Cox and Christopher Morley that was part of the short-lived television anthology series Screen Directors Playhouse.  Although Mack Williams did not have a single line of dialogue, he was a spiting image of Blair so some casting agent did their job well.

Montgomery Blair courtesy of

The Gilder Lehrman Collection, New York
Reference Number: GLC 5111.07

Who do you think Spielberg should cast as Montgomery Blair?

UPDATE:

Remembering that I had been in email contact with a few Blair descendants over the years, I checked my emails and lo and behold found THE Blair family crest:

Courtesy
http://katharinesweb.net/Ancestors/Blair/Blair.htm

Let's hope that Montgomery Blair doesn't wind up on the cutting room floor!

UPDATE:

Blair certainly has not wound up on the cutting room floor as he is being played by 86 year old Hal Holbrook.  I hope Spielberg uses CGI on Holbrook's face as Blair was in his late 40s/early 50s during the years he was Lincoln's postmaster general (1861-64)!

Mean Streets?

Every fall when institutions of higher learning start classes, I begin to get emails from both local as well as not so local graduate students (Canada, I'm talking about you) .  They have a paper to write and have chosen Silver Spring as their topic.


The below email arrived in my in-box today:


"Hello. My name is BLANK and I am a senior psychology major attending BLANK. I have been living in Silver Spring for the past four years. I have an assignment for my Urban Sociology class where I need to look at the population demographics of Silver Spring from the year 2000 to now. I was able to find some information on the census website, but a lot of people tell me Silver Spring used to be a tough area not too long ago. I was wondering if you would be able to give me some insight on how the area has changed, what caused the social change to occur, and around what year(s) did it happen? I would be very appreciative of any information you would be able to give me. Thank you."


I smiled at the thought of Silver Spring being thought of as "a tough area."  By 2000 both Whole Foods (then named Fresh Fields) and Strosniders Hardware opened in "Phase One" of Silver Spring's "Town Center."  Discovery Communications and the American Film Institute had also decided by 2000 to locate here.

This "tough area" is one of the biggest (sub)urban myths that Silver Spring still seems to be trying to live down.  I've lived in downtown Silver Spring since 1992 and have been a visitor since the late 1970s and never once felt any more endangered here than anywhere else in the DC metro area that I have ever been to.

I welcome readers' opinions/answers to this student's questions.  Please post comments and I will share them with this individual.  Thank you.

See the World's Largest Acorn & More Unusual Local Attractions!

Did you know that the world's largest (man-made) acorn can be found right here in downtown Silver Spring or that a statue of a lobsterman is in Washington, DC?

These and other greater Washington one-of-a-kind landmarks and destinations will be featured on More Unusual Attractions, to air on October 7th and 10th at 9 pm on WETA TV 26.

I will appear in the segment about Silver Spring's historic circa 1850 Acorn Gazebo, located in Acorn Park at the corner of East-West Highway and Newell Street.  For information about the other landmarks and attractions that will appear in the program, visit the More Unusual Attractions Map.

Please join me this Saturday, October 1st, for a walking tour of historic Silver Spring that will include the Acorn Gazebo along with other fascinating insights into Silver Spring's history.

The tour kicks off at 10 am from the Silver Spring Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station, 8100 Georgia Avenue, and concludes at noon.  The cost is $5 per person.  Reservations are not required.  Limited parking available in front of the station or a short walk from the Silver Spring Metro Station.  Well behaved dogs welcome!

(The railroad station is open FREE from 10-3 on Saturday.)

Hope to see you Saturday!

"Nothing By You"

I had a good chuckle when I came across this cartoon on p. 35 of the September 12, 2011 issue of The New Yorker.

Get it?

For those who don't, the cartoon depicts a stylized view of the 5th Avenue facade of the landmark 1911 New York Public Library as seen from E. 41st Street.  The banner hanging over the entrance is chiding the reader who would be so lucky to have a work represented in one of the greatest libraries in the world.

To which I immediately thought, "Hey, maybe I do!"

Off to http://catalog.nypl.org/ I went and in the author field I typed "McCoy Jerry A." and hit the "Submit" button.  My jaw dropped.

There, shelved inside this century old marble Beaux Arts edifice designed by Carrère and Hastings, sits Downtown Silver Spring in the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy.  The neighboring book to the right is Smith Island, Chesapeake Bay by Frances W. Dize and to the left sits another book on Silver Spring, Enchanted Forest Glen : the Endangered Legacy of National Park Seminary Historic District in Silver Spring, Maryland.

I have been planning a visit to NY see the High Line and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.  To these sites I will now add Room 121 of the NYPL's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.