Since 1983, postcard collectors, both here and in the United Kingdom, have observed the first full week in May as National Postcard Week.

In celebration of the week, postcard collectors (or deltiologists, for those who are really serious about their hobby) either make their own postcards or purchase them to mail to friends and family. In honor of NPW ’04, we look back 76 years to a postcard that depicted the rapidly growing community of Silver Spring, Maryland.

The Silver Spring: Then image shows a postcard published by Willard R. Ross that is captioned "West Side of Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, Md. 10X." Ross was a Washington, D.C. photographer who specialized in the publication of real-photo postcard images–that is, images printed on photographic paper, as opposed to conventional printing methods utilizing inks. Between the years 1910 and 1925, Ross documented neighborhood businesses, churches, street scenes, and local events. He would occasionally pack up his heavy view camera and supply of glass-plate negatives and journey outside of of downtown to document other communities, in order to expand business.

Ross’s first trip to Silver Spring was on June 21, 1917, when he photographed various sites and buildings. Thirteen of these postcard images have survived from that visit (see Silver Spring Voice, June 2003).

Nearly eleven years later, on March 28, 1928, Ross returned to Silver Spring, probably desiring to update his stock of postcard images. The "10X" indicated in the caption refers to the number of different postcard views in the series that Ross took during this 1928 visit. Indeed, many changes had occurred in the small town since his first trip.

One of those changes was the construction of the community’s first commercial and entertainment center, developed by James Herbert Cissel. Cissel was president of the Silver Spring National Bank, the community’s first, which opened in 1910 on the southeast corner of Georgia and Sligo avenues. The bank had to relocate in 1924 when construction began on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad underpass, built to separate Brookeville (now Georgia) Avenue from the B&O’s Metropolitan Branch railroad tracks. The current Georgia Avenue underpass, opened in 1948, in turn replaced this underpass.

Cissel purchased a lot on the west side of Georgia Avenue, just south of Oak (now Bonifant) Street, and hired local architect Frank Baker Proctor and builder John M. Faulconer to design and construct a row of brick commercial structures.

The first structure to be built was the Silver Spring National Bank, which opened its doors on September 1, 1925 and is the structure appearing on the right in the image. Visible at the bottom of the bank’s vertical sign is "4% On Savings."

On the south side of the bank was the Cissel Building. Brosius Bros. & Gormley, Inc. occupied the ground floor and provided sales and service for Hudson, Essex, and Hupmobile "motor cars." Customers were offered "day and night storage" of their automobiles. Occupying the second floor of the Cissel Building was "Spindler’s Beauty Shoppe–Manicuring, Hair Cutting, Shampooing, Marcelling." Ruth A. Spindler was the owner of the shop and also lived on the second floor. The juxtaposition of these two businesses exhibited a clever marketing strategy for the times–the wife could pamper herself upstairs while the husband was downstairs getting the car serviced or admiring the latest models.

And if the couple had children in tow what could they do with them? Why, send them next door to the SECO Theatre, of course! Opened on November 7, 1927, the SECO was Silver Spring’s first and only movie theater. Its name was an acronym for owner W. Valentine Wilson’s Suburban Electric Company. Wilson also owned the SECO in Rockville, built circa 1915. Costing $60,000 to build, Silver Spring’s SECO had 500 seats and featured a 12 x 16 ft. screen and a projection system "said to be the latest word in motion pictures machines."

Parents, however, may have had second thoughts about letting their children see the movie that was playing on the day that Ross took this photograph. Two posters displayed on the front of the theater indicate that the 1927 silent film London After Midnight, starring Lon "Man of a Thousand Faces" Chaney, was playing that day. The film, directed by Tod Browning, tells the story of possible vampires who move into the abandoned home of a wealthy man who committed suicide five years earlier…or did he? Archivists and film collectors throughout the world consider this film to be the "Holy Grail" due to the fact that there are no known copies. The American Film Institute has listed it as one of the nine most significant lost films of all time.

To the right of the SECO Theatre’s entrance was Acme Candies, owned by Fred Lawrence Lutes. Lutes was also the assistant cashier at the Silver Spring National Bank. To the left of the theater’s entrance was Helen’s Shop, a gift store owned by Helen L. Brannon.

The Silver Spring: Again image depicts the same view as it appears today, after a series of changes. In 1938, the Silver Spring National Bank saved the failing Takoma Park Bank by merging with it, becoming Suburban National Bank. To celebrate this merger, and to expand the bank, the noted architectural and construction firm Tilghman Moyer & Co. of Allentown, Pa. was engaged to construct a new, 16-foot-deep Classical Revival limestone facade. "Ghost" letters forming the outline of "Suburban National Bank" can still be seen, on either side of the front entrance, after a rain when the limestone is wet. Suburban Trust would later be known as Suburban Bancorp and was the fourth largest bank in Maryland when it merged with Sovran Bank in the 1980s. Sovran became NationsBank in the 1990s, moving out of its Georgia Avenue location in 1997 when it became Bank of America.

Likewise, the last theater to occupy the SECO was Roth’s Silver Spring West (Roth’s Silver Spring East was located half a block to the east on Thayer Avenue). The theater underwent a $125,000 renovation designed by Warren G. Sargent and reopened on July 9, 1953. The last films were screened in June 1991, when the theater permanently shut down after six decades.

In 1997 the Bethel World Outreach Ministries ("Win the Lost at All Costs") purchased the bank, theater, and empty lot between them. Church services are held in the theater and offices, and classrooms occupy the bank building. Only recently did the church destroy the theater’s eclectic 1953 façade, consisting of turquoise aggregate panels and brass movie poster cases, by burying it under a façade of beige Dryvit. The future of the bank building, whose name "Suburban National Bank" or "Suburban Trust" may still reside under a removable panel at the top of the façade, is unknown.

The last known occupant of the Cissel Building, where the empty lot is, was the Silver Restaurant. Early owners were Ova D. Norman and his wife, Marion. In 1962, the business was taken over by Joseph Ramella and his children. Sometime around 1972, a fire occurred in the restaurant, which may have damaged the building beyond repair and necessitated its demolition.

If you can share with the Silver Spring Historical Society additional information, photographs, or memorabilia on any of the individuals or businesses mentioned in this article, please contact SSHS at P.O. Box 1160, Silver Spring, MD 20910-1160, email sshistory@yahoo.com, or call 301-565-2519. The society’s web site is www.sshistory.org. Future historians will thank you!