World's Largest Acorn & Other Amazing Sites

Yesterday I conducted a free walking tour of south Silver Spring as part of the 14th Annual Montgomery County Heritage Days Weekend.  About a dozen engaged and interested participants attended which was a really nice antidote to recent criticisms expended about SSHS's historic preservation efforts.  Here are a few photographs taken by George French.  As always thanks George!

I hereby proclaim this structure WORLD'S LARGEST ACORN

(pay no attention to Raleigh, North Carolina's claim)!  Located

in Acorn Park, corner of East-West Highway & Newell Street,

this gazebo was constructed circa 1850 by Benjamin C. King at

the bequest of Silver Spring founder Francis Preston Blair for

his wife Eliza Gist Blair.

Directly across from the Acorn Gazebo is the "birthplace" of Silver Spring, the original
spring discovered by Francis Preston Blair in 1840 (courtesy of his horse Selim). 
Blair began construction of his country estate Silver Spring nearby in 1842 which
 led to the growth of our community.  No, the water is not from the spring,
which ceased flowing about 70 years ago, but WSSC tap water!

Across from Acorn Park is the 1946 Canada Dry Bottling Plant, designed by New York City

industrial architect Walter Monroe Cory whose motto was "Factories CAN be beautiful."

The bottling plant closed in 1999 an reopened in 2005 as the Silverton Condominiums

(although everyone I've ever talked to who resides there say they live in "Canada Dry").