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Memories & music arrive at Silver Spring’s historic 1945
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station
on June 24!
The Silver Spring Historical Society
and Montgomery Preservation Inc.
invite the public to a free photography exhibit and music performance to be held at Silver Spring’s historic 1945 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Station in celebration of Montgomery County Heritage Days.
The exhibit Vintage Silver Spring Photographs by Robert B. Davis will be on display Saturday, June 24, from noon to 4:00 p.m. At 1:00 p.m. Takoma Park musician Joe Uehlein, of the roots-rock band The U-Liners, will perform railroad songs in the train station’s restored 1945 waiting room.
The railroad station, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Preservation, is located at 8100 Georgia Avenue (at Sligo Avenue) in downtown Silver Spring, MD. Limited parking free parking is available in front of the station.
Bob Davis worked at the train station for 42 years from 1945 to 1987, beginning as a “relief” clerk and retiring as the station agent. Over the years he took scores of snapshots documenting various aspects of life at the busy suburban passenger station; trains pulled by a variety of locomotives, track work, fellow employees, as well as the neighboring business community. Two decades after retiring, Davis, age 76, is active as a volunteer at both the train station as well as at the Montgomery County Police’s Silver Spring District station on Sligo Avenue.
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PHOTO: Robert B. Davis Silver Spring then: The Capitol Limited pulls into the Silver Spring station back in 1948. |
PHOTO: Jerry A. Mccoy
Silver Spring again: The Metro travels along the same track bed. |
On October 6, 1948, Davis snapped an eastbound Capitol Limited diesel train as it approached the Silver Spring station. Of note in the background of his image is the single-story streamlined art-moderne rear elevation of the 1946 Canada Dry Bottling Plant. This entire side of the plant facing the railroad tracks was demolished in the mid 1970s in order to double the width of the track bed to accommodate construction of Metro. In the photograph taken from nearly the same vantage point, an eastbound Metro train passes structures constructed in 2005 that replaced what remained of the rear (east) side of the bottling plant.
The parking garage (right) and solid façade (left) is today part of The Silverton, a soon-to-be completed condominium that has incorporated the original two-story lobby entrance and projecting facades of the administrative portion of the Canada Dry Bottling Plant, designed by nationally renowned New York City architect Walter Monroe Cory. This central portion of the overall bottling plant was placed on Montgomery County’s Locational Atlas & Index of Historic Sites in 2002. The building on the extreme right is The Bennington condominium, opened in 2004. Both condominiums, facing East-West Highway, are part of a condo building boom currently taking place is South Silver Spring.
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PHOTO: Robert B. Davis
Silver Spring then: View of Georgia Avenue circa 1963 from the train station. The 10-story World Building was Silver Spring’s tallest structure when it opened in 1964. |
PHOTO: Jerry A. Mccoy
Silver Spring again: This same view taken today shows the World Building with is 2005 façade renovation. |
Davis’ view of Georgia Avenue was taken circa 1963 from the street-side of the train station. Standing like a monolith in comparison to its one and two-story neighbors to the north, all constructed in the early 20th century, the 10-story World Building was Silver Spring’s tallest structure when it opened in the summer of 1964. Located at 8121 Georgia Avenue, the 70,000-square foot structure was designed by Vlastimel Koubek and cost $1.5 million to build ($9.2 million in 2006 dollars).
The building was probably more familiarly known as the WGAY Building, named after the FM radio station that occupied the top floors of the building from its opening until 1998. Yet to be constructed in the 1963 image is the radio station’s 170-foot radio transmission tower. With a view from the roof looking south that revealed the National Cathedral, the Washington Monument and the Capitol dome, one might wonder why the building’s south façade has no windows.
Turns out that developers Melvin A. Robinson and Daniel Melnick obtained a 99-year lease to protect the air rights on the choice, north (cooler) side of the building, leaving the south (hotter) side open to development of a similarly-sized structure…yet to be developed four plus decades later. With 43 of the 99-year lease having lapsed, the preservation of neighboring 8123-27 Georgia Avenue, built circa 1917 and location of the first Silver Spring Post Office, should be assured until around 2062!
This same view taken today shows the World Building with is 2005 façade renovation. In the far left background is the under-construction Crescent condominium, located on Wayne Avenue between Georgia Avenue and Fenton Street. On the extreme left is a portion of the 2005 Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Dept. #1, which will replace the soon-to-close circa 1914 firehouse on Georgia Avenue.
Future preservation of this important historic firehouse, which served as Silver Spring’s original armory, is unknown at this writing. The Silver Spring Historical Society will closely monitor its preservation and adaptive reuse due to its importance to the history of Silver Spring’s development as well as well as to its landmark location on “Main Street” Georgia Avenue.
If you can share with the Silver Spring Historical Society any photographs/memorabilia of the World/WGAY Building, please contact SSHS at P.O. Box 1160, Silver Spring, MD 20910-1160, email sshistory@yahoo.com, or call 301-537-1253. The society’s Web site is www.sshistory.org. Present and future historians will thank you!
| Congratulations to Silver Spring’s historian |
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Jerry A. McCoy is the recipient of Montgomery Preservation Inc.’s 2006 Special Achievement Award for History for his book, Historic Silver Spring, now in its second printing. The award was presented June 6 at MPI’s 20th Annual Montgomery County Historic Preservation Awards Ceremony, whose theme this year is “Keeping Montgomery County’s Heritage Alive.” Montgomery Preservation Inc. is Montgomery County’s only countywide, private, nonprofit historic preservation organization, whose mission is “to preserve, protect, and promote Montgomery County’s rich architectural heritage and historic landscapes.” For information on MPI call 301-942-8079 or visit www.montgomerypreservation.org.
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