"Don't Worry About It!"

Thus was the catch phrase spoken by Norman Collins Lane, affectionately known as the "Mayor of Silver Spring," who was born a century ago on April 14, 1911.  Norman was a homeless man who spent the better part of twenty-five years walking the streets and alleys of downtown Silver Spring.

This dignified portrait of Norman was taken in 1971. 
Copyright Dave Stovall.

He collected handouts of money and food and did odd jobs around the community.  One of these jobs was as a groundskeeper picking up trash at the Bethesda Naval Hospital.  One day in October of 1965 he encountered the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson.  President Johnson was at Bethesda to have his gall bladder removed and supposedly said to Norman upon meeting him, "Christ, you look in worse shape than I do!"



Photograph taken in 1965 of Norman meeting President Johnson. 
The photo is inscribed, "To Norman Lane
With best wishes Lyndon B. Johnson."  Collection of Iris Hyson.


Norman's beverage of choice was Pabst Blue Ribbon beer...morning, noon and night...and he usually wore a construction hard hat. Robert Phillips, owner of the Silver Spring Auto Body Co. (demolished) provided Norman with a cot and a hot plate in his business, the closest that Norman would accept to the comforts of a home.  Norman liked to rummage through the dumpsters behind Bell Florist and Pumphrey's Funeral Home (demolished) where he would retrieve discarded roses and then proceed to give one to each woman he passed on Georgia Avenue.

For years this sign was attached to the Silver Spring Auto Body Co. until it disappeared
 in 2003 after the business shut down. Photo taken by Jerry A. McCoy in 1996.

Silver Spring Auto Body Co. sign donated by Charles Atwell. 
Collection of SSHS Archives.

When the ABC television show "Real People" featured a 7 1/2 minute segment on Norman in 1979, it asked people in downtown Silver Spring if they'd vote for him if he ran for office.  Everybody said sure with one black guy responding, "Why not? The last two white men I voted for were bums too."


Such a colorful personality seemed to beg to be immortalized and that was what artist Fred Folsom did, starting in 1974 by creating dozens of studies, paintings and lithographs depicting Norman.  On October 11, 1991, four years after Norman passed away in the back seat of an National DC cab abandoned off of Sligo Avenue, Folsom dedicated a life-sized bronze portrait of him.


Oil on masonite, 12" x 12", by Fred Folson, copyright 1987.
Collection of Jerry A. McCoy.

The bust is located in the walkway, named "Mayor's Promenade," located next to 8219 Georgia Avenue.  This walkway led back to the front door of the Silver Spring Auto Body Co.  The alley that this business faced, running parallel to Georgia between Thayer and Sligo avenues, was also named "Mayor Lane."

Photo by Jerry A. McCoy.

Please join the Silver Spring Historical Society on Thursday, April 14th, at 9:00 a.m to honor Norman on his 100th birthday.  If anyone knew him, we would love to hear some stories.  And if anyone knows how the tune goes, we could sing this song written in 1979 by Harry Merrick, then the lead singer of the five-member Chase Holiday Band...

"He's walking down the sidewalk, moving kind of slow.  He looks kind of funny, but he's never feeling low.  And if you ask him he'll tell you everything is OK.  He never worries, you can always hear him say, 'It's all right, don't worry about it.' 

He's the mayor of Silver Spring, Norman is his name.  Things will come and go, but he'll always stay the same.  People have to relax and take it day by day because he never worries and you can always hear him say, 'It's all right, don't worry about it.' "

I'm Walking Yes Indeed I'm Talking...

Yesterday I led a two hour, half mile walking tour of Downtown Silver Spring for about twenty folks. The free tour was filmed and will appear as a short segment of the cable television show Paths to the Present: Montgomery County Stories, produced by Barbara Grunbaum for County Cable Montgomery and the Montgomery County Historical Society.  

Mike the cameraman films the group in front of the 1922 Silver Spring National Bank,
scene of our community's first bank robbery.  Photo by Barbara Grunbaum.

The walk was held in association with the Montgomery County Historical Society and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County as part of the dual exhibits Between Fences and Good Neighbors: Fences in Montgomery County, currently on display at the Silver Spring Civic Building thru April 30, 2011.  Between Fences is a traveling exhibit organized by the Smithsonian Institution and is well worth seeing, as is Good Neighbors, organized by the MCHS.

For me the tour was reaffirming after last Monday's depressing loss before the Historic Preservation Commission of the Silver Spring Historical Society's nomination of the 1956 First Baptist Church of Silver Spring.  It was nice to be surrounded by like-minded individuals who believe that it is important to preserve Silver Spring's history. They were engaged, interested, and asked questions about the many buildings that I profiled, including the ones that were no longer extant. Sadly, some of these lost structures were standing when I first began to offer these tours over ten years ago.

"If you've got a camera, take a photo of this church while it's still here!"
Photo by Barbara Grunbaum. 

A "Currier & Ives" view of the First Baptist Church of Silver Spring.
Photo by Jerry A. McCoy.

Tour participant looks a photos of the 1927 Silver Spring Armory,  a designated historic
structure destroyed by Montgomery County in 1998 for construction of a parking garage.
A piece of the armory is in the background.  Photo by Barbara Grunbaum.

The tour concluded at Silver Spring's restored 1945 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station.
Open for free tours the first Saturday of each month, a new attraction at the station is the
installation of a large model railroad display...swamped by kids!  Photo by Barbara Grunbaum.

Here is a Bargain!!

Today at work I was clipping copies of 1940s Evening Star newspapers.  Even though the DC Public Library's Washingtoniana Division has this newspaper on microfilm, whenever I encounter original loose copies I always go through them and clip interesting photographs to place into our Washington Historical Image Collection.

In the February 8, 1941 issue (p. B-5) I found this awesome advertisement for a bungalow in the Blair Takoma section of Silver Spring.  $5,750 doesn't sound like much money and indeed, when adjusted for inflation today equals only about $86K

The bungalow was constructed in 1925 and last sold in 2005 for $450,000, which certainly would have amazed Mr. Phillips!  It appears to look much as it did 70 years ago, with the only difference being today's reverse color scheme, chimney cap addition, and simplified porch railing.

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Next American City » Buzz » Misunderstanding Historic Preservation

Next American City » Buzz » Misunderstanding Historic Preservation

From the Archives I

The Silver Spring Historical Society recently acquired this cigarette lighter, which probably sat on an engineer's desk at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory during the 1950s or 60s.  The APL, as it was known, was located at 8621 Georgia Avenue from 1942 to 1976 when it was closed down.

According to Phillip R. Hays, PhD LT USNR-R, the AN/SPS-30 referred to on the lighter's plaque was a shipboard air search radar that had the ability to
determine altitude of a target as well as bearing and range.  This type of radar was often called a "3D" radar.


Such radar installations consisted of an antenna and pedestal, the transmitting and receiving equipment, and a control unit.  The control unit was something like a radio tuner for your home entertainment system.  It allowed the operator to adjust the operating characteristics of the radar set.


APL was most famously known for the development of the Proximity VT (Variable Time) Fuse, credited by military leaders as second in importance to the atomic bomb in ending WWII.  APL management must have had a penchant for making souvenirs for their employees after they completed a contract.  A souvenir VT fuse (it looks like a small missle) is owned by the Laurel Historical Society and Museum.

The vaguely art deco APL (shown here in a 1946 postcard) was razed sometime in the 1980s.  If anyone knows the exact year, please let me know.  For the past three decades the footprint of the structure has been used as a parking lot located next door to the Lee Building at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road.  This would have been a great building on Georgia Avenue's streetscape had it managed to survive, instead of the gapping hole we have long had to live with.

Paths to the Present Video Features Silver Spring Landmark

Here is the most recent Paths to the Present video that features Silver Spring's Fire Station #1 Restaurant & Brewing Co.

Owner/founder Jeremy Gruber is a preservation "angel" for saving this nearly century old landmark, unlike others in Silver Spring who continue to destroy our cultural history.

THANK YOU Jeremy!

Happy 150th Birthday Willard R. Ross

Today is the 150th birthday of Washington, DC photographer Willard R. Ross.  Born in Ohio on December 24, 1860, Ross moved to the District of Columbia around 1910 and commenced business for himself as a postcard photographer specializing in "hometown" views.

Ross documented Silver Spring twice with his large format camera that utilized glass plate negatives, once in 1917 and then again in 1928.  This view of Brookeville Pike, today's Georgia Avenue, was taken on June 21, 1917 and tweaked to reflect the spirit of the holiday season.

If the buildings in the left foreground look familiar to you that is because all of them have miraculously survived to see the 21st century.  The porch on the left is today's display windows of Plaza Artist Materials (the unseen American four-square house attached to the porch is encased in the present structure).  Next is a two-story wood frame structure that today houses Bell Flowers.  Other than having been covered in stucco, this circa 1910-15 structure looks almost like it did a century ago.  Just across Silver Spring Avenue is the original 1914 Maryland National Guard Armory, which begat the Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Dept. #1 that in turn begat today's Fire Station 1 Restaurant & Brewing Co.

To view all of the other known images that Ross took of Silver Spring, see chapter one "Through the Lens of Willard R. Ross: Silver Spring in 1917 and 1928" in Historic Silver Spring.

Wishing you all Happy Holidays and a Healthy and Happy 2011!