Historic Silver Spring

by Jerry A. McCoy and Silver Spring Historical Society

Book Overview

Images of America: Historic Silver Spring celebrates the community's past, beginning with founder Francis Preston Blair's 1840 discovery of the mica-flecked spring and the 1873 arrival of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

Vintage photographs document the progressive growth of the Main Streets, Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road, and the construction of the Silver Spring Armory and National Dry Cleaning Institute in 1927 and the Silver...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738541885
• ISBN13: 9780738541884
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (SC)
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Walk Through Silver Spring

Silver Spring, Maryland borders Washington, D.C. and shares the major thoroughfare of Georgia Avenue. I have lived on the Washington, D.C. side of the line for many years, and frequently take walks along the Georgia Avenue corridor: sometimes facing south into the District, sometimes north into Silver Spring, to the stores and the Metro or to sit in Blair Park and read. With my walking though Silver Spring, I was fascinated by this collection of photographs "Historic Silver Spring" (2005) by Jerry McCoy and the Silver Spring Historical Society as part of a series of books called "Images of America" which celebrates neighborhoods and towns throughout our country. Although I have seen the streets and many of the places shown in this book many times, this book has given me a new understanding of and appreciation for a place with which I thought myself all too familiar. The book includes a collection of current scenes and of places that are no more, and they melded together for me in my looking at the photographs. Silver Spring was founded by the Blair family of Maryland in the 1840s. It developed into a thriving residential commercial and transportation center and then went into a long decline. Sustained efforts over the last few decades have produced a revitalization of Silver Spring with the metro, mall, and new housing developments. The book consists of over 120 pages of beautifully reproduced photographs together with careful annotations of date, place, and subject to help the viewer understand the photo and place it in a context. The four sections of the book include postcard photographs taken of Silver Spring in 1917 and 1928; photographs documenting the change in Silver Spring from the mansions of the Blairs through industrialization, through the present; photos of the main commercial intersection of Silver Spring at Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road; and photos of early homes in East Silver Spring. I most enjoyed looking at the photographs of places I know or remembered. Thus I enjoyed the photos of the Silver Spring "Acorn" and "Spring" just off Georgia Avenue about four blocks from the District line. There is also a photograph of a mural that was painted recently at the site of Acorn Park on the wall of a failed department store to commemorate Silver Spring's past and present. There are pictures of trains, railway and streetcar stations, parks, post offices, ice cream parlors, and people -- and of the former Canada Dry bottling plant that closed a few years ago. The old Silver Spring Armory was demolished recently, and the book offers photos of the Armory, its demolition, and the new mall-associated construction that took it place. A community landmark was the Silver Spring Tastee Diner which was moved in the early 2000s from one site on Georgia Avenue to another site on the other side of the Georgia Avenue -- Colesville Road intersection. A homeless person named Norman Lane, the "Mayor" of Silver Spring, wandered the streets of do

Fascinating, nostalgic look at Silver Spring, MD

For anyone who grew up in Silver Spring this book is essential and for those who moved into SS, highly recommended. Highlights for me include: the original mansions of the founding Blair Family, the 1923 tornado that swept through SS, the 1969 attack on the draft board, the homeless "Mayor" of SS and many more, not the least of which is simply seeing the people looking back at me from the early 20th century up to now.

An Astonishing Achievement

Jerry McCoy has enormous learning lightly worn. With literary skill and a scrupulous command of the images and their historical background, he provides the reader with a fascinating and remarkable look at one of the most interesting - if neglected - suburbs in the United States. This book is a valuable contribution to the history of Silver Spring, but it will also appeal to anyone interested in the story of a small city through the decades. All the outward characteristics of a town are here - commercial buildings; houses; railroad, taxi and trolley terminals; post offices; armories; banks; motels; public commemorations and celebrations - but so are children, students, families, firefighters, waitresses - people who through the ebb and flow of their lives give any place on a map its heart and soul. The thoroughness of Mr. McCoy's research and the skill with which he chose the images is impressive. He captures Silver Spring's story and spirit perfectly.

Author Statement

Years before I ever thought about doing a book on Silver Spring's history I was talking to a woman during the course of trying to raise awareness of the need to restore Silver Spring's 1937 post office mural, "The Old Tavern" (it had been removed from the post office over a decade earlier and placed in storage). I remember her telling me, rather adamantly, "Silver Spring has no history!" I could only think to myself, "My, what an ignorant remark to make about ANY place." That brief exchange always stayed with me. If this one person thought that way, there were probably many more people who thought the same as she did. Thus was the "seed" planted for eventual publication of "Historic Silver Spring." As founder and president of the Silver Spring Historical Society, this book justly falls under our organization's mission of "creating and promoting awareness and appreciation of Silver Spring's heritage through sponsorship of educational activities and the preservation and protection of historical sites, structures, artifacts and archives." My hope for the book is that local residents (and their kids!) or even visitors will use the book as an actual guide to their exploration of the fascinating history of downtown Silver Spring. The book is divided into four chapters of photographs: 1. Through the Lens of Willard R. Ross: Silver Spring in 1917 and 1928 Willard R. Ross (1860-1948) was a Washington, DC post card photographer who was the first to systematically document downtown Silver Spring, first on June 21, 1917, and nearly eleven years later on March 28, 1928. Twenty real-photo post cards views depict how the original "silver" spring (named for the mica specks in the water) and Georgia Avenue looked when the area was still mostly rural. 2. From Country Estates to Light Industry to Urban Towers: South Silver Spring South Silver Spring is the area of our downtown community that borders the District of Columbia. Depicting views of the summer estates belonging to founder Francis Preston Blair and his two sons, all constructed in the mid 19th century, photographs show how the area quickly became industrialized in less than 100 years. Today this same area is experiencing an unprecedented building boom of apartments and condominiums due to the area's close proximity to public transportation and the downtown Washington, DC core. 3. Main Streets of History: Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road These two primary arteries that serve as downtown Silver Spring's "Main Streets" are visually documented as one walks north on Georgia Avenue from Eastern Avenue (at the District of Columbia line) and proceeds to Colesville Road. Incredibly, many of the early to mid 20th century commercial structures located on these two streets still survive and have been restored (the 1938 Silver Theatre and Shopping Center are examples) but far more many structures are in danger of demolition as the "revitalization" of downtown Silver Spring begins to reach out