Then: Falkland Apartments, 1987

Again: Lenox Park Apartments, October 2003

It is hard to fathom, in the midst of all of the redevelopment taking place today in and around downtown Silver Spring, that at one time, life in the community proceeded at a slower pace. I am reminded of this when looking at the modest brick structure that appears in the "Silver Spring: Then" photograph.

Appearing as it did just before its demolition in 1987, this structure was one of many buildings comprising the Falkland Apartments, the first large-scale garden apartment complex in Montgomery County.

Construction started in 1936 on the Falkland, which was the first such property in Maryland to receive mortgage insurance from the newly-created Federal Housing Administration (FHA). This particular structure, consisting of several townhouses, diagonally faced the intersection of Colesville Road and East-West Highway and, along with five others extending west, comprised the "Draper Triangle" portion of Falkland.

Flanking either end of the two-story brick colonial revival townhomes were screened porches, which opened into settings of lush landscapes of trees and green spaces.

In my mind's eye, I can see the residents relaxing on their porches on a warm summer night in 1936, their radios tuned to the Lombardo Trio performing I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket. Or they may have been reading the book that everyone was reading that year: Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind.

When completed, the Falkland contained 479 units—apartments, duplexes, and townhouses. Additions to the original sector were built on the west side of 16th Street and the north side of East-West Highway, for a total of 24 acres. As a prototype of affordable housing promoted by the New Deal, Falkland was intended to ensure quality housing for people of modest means.

Designed by prominent architect and influential city planner Louis Justement, Falkland, when first built, was widely featured in the major architectural journals. The Architectural Record, for example, cited Falkland in 1941 as "a well known and highly regarded early FHA' project." The structures were designed to follow the topography of the land, with abundant open space and a natural streambed. Justement retained existing trees and a Y-shaped stream valley that provided, in his words, "privacy as well as agreeable surroundings." That streambed today is still one of the most pleasant features of Falkland.

The name "Falkland" derived from Montgomery Blair's home, which was located on the south side of Colesville Road until the Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Dept. burned it down on September 7, 1958. The Falkland Apartments were conceived in the tradition of the English Garden Cities movement, which influenced such 1930s developments as Sunnyside Gardens in New York; Radburn in New Jersey; and Chatham Village near Pittsburgh. Recognizing the Falkland's historic merits, the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission in 1981 recommended the property for designation on the county's Master Plan for Historic Preservation. Master Plan status would have afforded legal protection from demolition.

Such recognition did not prevent the Draper Triangle sector, some of whose 34 townhouses are shown here, from being demolished. In their place, the gargantuan Lenox Park Apartments, shown in the "Silver Spring: Again" image, was built in 1992. This 17-story building contains almost 400 units and takes up two full acres.

In September of this year, an out-of-state company purchased the remaining 22 acres of the Falkland. Many in the community are concerned that more of the original structures may be cleared to make way for new high-rise developments, perhaps similar to that of Lenox Park.

If you can share with the Silver Spring Historical Society photographs or memorabilia of downtown Silver Spring from any years for use in a future book, please contact SSHS at PO Box 1160, Silver Spring, MD 20910-1160 or email sshistory@yahoo.com. The society's web site is www.sshistory.org. Future residents of Silver Spring will thank you!