In celebration of summer 2004, I thought it would be fun if "Silver Spring: Then & Again" sponsored a contest.

The rules are simple. The first person to submit the most correct answers to the following 12 questions will win a walking tour, for up to 10 people, of historic Georgia Avenue.

The tour will be conducted by yours truly and will encompass the historic one-third mile between the 1938 Silver Spring Shopping Center at Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road and the 1945 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station at Georgia and Sligo avenues.

Yes, there might be only seven years separating those buildings, but the history of Georgia Avenue goes back 150 years. (But then, you knew that, didn't you?)

Don't rush! You have until August 27, 2004 to submit your answers. Either email them to sshistory@yahoo.com or mail them to SSHS Trivia Contest, P.O. Box 1160, Silver Spring, MD, 20910-1160.

The winner will be announced in the September issue of the Silver Spring Voice. The date/time of the tour will be held on a mutually agreed weekend in the fall.

Now you have something to do this summer in search of the answers.

Silver Spring History Trivia Contest

1. What business can be found today in the building first occupied by Hunter Brothers and then Maloneys, Inc. hardware stores?

2. What was the second movie theater to open in Silver Spring, and the title of the first film shown there?

3. What structure appears in the logo of the Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Dept. #1, and where is this structure located?

4. Name the famous actor who is the great-great grandson of Silver Spring founder Francis Preston Blair.

5. Name Silver Spring's first newspaper and the year it started publication.

6. What was "the Viaduct," where was it, and what is one reason why it was replaced?

7. What is the only building located in downtown Silver Spring listed on the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Places, and who owns it today?

8. Who in 1975 said, "There's a suburb of Washington named Silver Spring, Maryland, and it is perfectly hideous– rampant, unplanned, uncontrolled post- war growth. It's horrible."

9. Name four downtown Silver Spring eateries which have been in operation for over half a century.

10. What was "Mayor" Norman Lane's favorite saying?

11. Silver Spring's 1936 post office mural "The Old Tavern" is one of only three New Deal-era murals located in Montgomery County. Where are the other two located?

12. Who was the first postmaster of Silver Spring? Who is the current postmaster?