Silver Spring's "Main Street," Part Two

In the October Silver Spring Voice, Silver Spring: Then & Again explored the history of 8126 Georgia Avenue, the two-story commercial brick structure constructed circa 1924 (and not 1896 as the building’s cornerstone attests) that was home to a hardware store from 1924 to 1984. Operated for six decades under the family names Hunter and Maloney, the structure now houses the Dor-Ne Corset Shoppe (“from hardware to underwear” as I like to say when I point out this building during my walking tours of Georgia Avenue). This month we walk one block north up Silver Spring’s original “Main Street” to another two-story brick structure located at 8222-26 Georgia Avenue/1004 Ripley Street, constructed circa 1924 by the Silver Spring Building Supply Company (Photo 1).

Photos: Courtesy SSHS except where noted Photo 1

Silver Spring pioneer businessman James Herbert Cissel (1870-1943) was one of the founders in 1922 of the Silver Spring Building Supply Company. Cissel’s business career began in the 1880s when, as a boy, he began clerking in a country store operated by his family in Colesville, MD. Cissel moved to Silver Spring and shortly thereafter, in 1910, became co-founder and first president of the Silver Spring National Bank. Cissel also served as the bank’s cashier, director and vice-president, serving in the last position at the time of his death.

Cissel managed to simultaneously operate the Farmers’ Supplies Co., conveniently located across Georgia Avenue (then named Brookeville Pike) from the bank. He sold this farm-implements and hardware business in 1913 to John H. Hunter and his brother Thomas. Cissel then proceeded to purchase the (Howard L.) Wilkins and (William W.) Jordan flour, feed, hay, grain and coal business, located across Sligo Avenue (then named Blair Road) from the bank. Cissel operated this business until circa 1920 when he sold it to Howard Griffith and Thomas W. Perry. One can only surmise that Cissel’s talent for juggling multiple business operations was expedited by the fact that he had a short commute home. His house was located half a block east of the bank, at 909 Sligo Avenue.

As reported in the December 14, 1924, Washington Post article, “Program of Construction Extends Into Maryland: Residential Development of Sixteenth Street Section Is Extended Into Silver Spring-Woodside Area, Where Demands for New Building Are Heavy,” the Silver Spring Building Supply Company sold $1 million worth of building materials ($11 million in today’s money) in the first 20 months of operation. Over 80 percent of this revenue was the result of new house construction in the immediate neighborhoods surrounding downtown Silver Spring.

The Silver Spring Building Supply Company’s administrative offices occupied the ground floor of 8226 Georgia Avenue and (around the corner) 1004 Ripley Street (then named Poplar Avenue). Cissel served as the company’s president. The North Washington Realty, Mortgage, and Insurance Co. occupied the top floor of this building (Photo 2).

E. Brooke Lee, great grandson of Silver Spring founder Francis Preston Blair, was president of this realty company, which at the time was actively in the process of developing residential neighborhoods on land owned by Lee that straddled Sixteenth Street and Georgia Avenue "extended", as well as upper Fourteenth Street, NW (which Lee termed "North Washington"). Together these two businesses operated in close symbiosis; Lee sold the building lots and Cissel sold the myriad building materials needed to construct the homes built upon them.

Photo 2

Photo 3

Cissel and Lee’s vital collaboration played out in daily fashion from 8226 Georgia Avenue, where together they played a seminal and key role in the dynamic economic, commercial and residential development of Silver Spring. Together with Frank L. Hewitt, an early real estate developer, the trio was described by Blair Lee in the August 29, 1947 Maryland News as the “three ace promoters of Silver Spring in those days” who “had a finger in almost every pie.”

A rare interior photograph, probably taken on Friday, July 18, as indicated by the calendar hanging at the rear of the office (this date occurred in 1924), shows Cissel sitting at his paper-strewn desk (Photo 3).
Cissel’s sister, Nellie, sits in the corner. The identity of the other two men is unknown.

The Post article related how Silver Spring Building Supply Company started with a modest woodworking mill in 1923 and within a year had to enlarge it. A circa 1924 interior view of the mill, located to the rear of 8222-8226 Georgia Avenue on the opposite side of Poplar Avenue, shows manager Joseph R. Griffin (? - 1974), wearing a bowtie, posing with unidentified workers (Photo 4).

Building materials were delivered to the mill via a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad siding that branched off of the main line and ran down Poplar Avenue, stopping just short of the mill. A 1928 Maryland News advertisement touted “Our Private Railroad Siding Helps Keep Our Costs Down.”

Photo: Robert B. Davis Photo 5

All of that lumber provided ample fuel for a devastating fire, the largest in Silver Spring’s history that occurred on July 4, 1949. Discovered that Monday afternoon at 5:28 p.m., the fire destroyed the lumberyard and six of its buildings. Fifty firemen were injured and damages were estimated at $400,000 ($3 million in today’s money). The cause was deemed arson. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad employee Robert B. Davis took this photograph of the plume of smoke from the train station to the south (Photo 5). One year later in 1950 the company rebuilt, using fireproof materials, and reopened for business.

The Silver Spring Building Supply Company office escaped damage from the fire and remains in virtually original condition. This rare Spanish Colonial Revival style structure features a slate canopy roof and is the only commercial structure of its kind in downtown Silver Spring. This structure, as well as the Dor-Ne Corset Shop, is currently endangered by potential dense development in the Ripley District, located between Georgia Avenue and the Metro/CSX tracks.

The Silver Spring Historical Society opposes any plans to raze either of these pioneering structures that formed Silver Spring’s original Central Business District. The society will continue working to assure that these historic structures, which provide a sense of place and are gifts to the downtown Silver Spring streetscape, will be adaptively reused. Already the current owner of the Silver Spring Building Supply Company has expressed his intention to restore the structure and name it the James Herbert Cissel Building.