Falkland Chase Apartments slated for destruction

Eleanor Roosevelt cut ribbon at opening
of this New Deal project

Below Photos: Jerry A. McCoy

Endangered Falkland unit located on the northeast corner of 16th Street and East-West Highway. 2007.

Located a short 5-minute walk from the north exit of the Silver Spring Metro Station sits a remarkable complex of two and three-story brick apartments that embody important elements of social, environmental, and architectural history. The north parcel of the Falkland Chase Apartments, constructed between 1937 and 1938, consists of 182 Colonial-Revival style garden apartments bordered by East-West Highway, 16 th Street, and the Metro/CSX railroad tracks. This nine-acre complex, designed around an existing streambed and scores of old-growth trees, has provided moderately priced housing for multiple generations of downtown Silver Spring residents.

But if Falkland's owner gets approval from the Montgomery County government, this intact natural setting upon which these human-scaled apartments are sited will be bulldozed and leveled into oblivion. Forever lost would be not only rare green space in downtown Silver Spring but housing for a demographic that is also becoming increasingly scarce in our community. In its place would be an immense, mostly 15-story C-shaped building housing 1,020 rental units, of which just 48 would be "moderately" priced.

Across East-West Highway, and across 16 th Street, are the two other parcels of Falkland. Currently, the entire 22-acre Falkland Apartment complex, 450 units in all including the endangered north parcel, is listed on Montgomery County's Locational Atlas of Historic Sites. The prominent "Cupola" building, the four-story brick structure with the beautifully patinated green copper roof that occupies the northeast corner of 16 th Street and Colesville Road, is listed on the county's Master Plan for Historic Preservation. The latter listing provides full legal protection specifically for this structure, the first Falkland unit completed in 1936. The former listing provides "interim" protection for the remaining units.

Above: 1955 aerial view of the currently endangered north parcel of Falkland. East-West Highway is on the left, with 16th Street yet to be extended north. Evening Star photo courtesy Washingtoniana Division, DC Public Library.

Above: 1971 rendering of the $100 million, 2 million sq. ft. mixed-used development project that would have replaced the entire 22 acre Falkland apartments. Colesville Road on the right with East-West Highway burrowing under the circular plaza topped by office buildings. Evening Star photo courtesy Washingtoniana Division, DC Public Library.

Prominent architectural historians have praised Falkland for its architectural style. But one might ask why else do the buildings deserve legal protection? The answer is entwined in the optimism of New Deal politics that swept our country over seven decades ago.

The originally named Falkland Apartment complex was among the first ten large-scale multifamily housing projects in the United States that were underwritten by the newly established Federal Housing Administration.Falkland was very likely the second, the first being Colonial Village in Arlington, VA, which is today listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Built for occupancy by families of moderate income, both complexes represented a new style of multi-family living that encompassed new ideas in housing and community design that came to fruition during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Widely praised and published at the time of their construction, the Falkland and Colonial Village apartments served as models nation-wide for affordable, multi-family, middle-class housing.

Falkland represented a convergence of two trends that shaped the history of housing in the United States; the application of "Garden City" principles, in which communities were designed to separate residential from commercial areas by greenbelts, and the social and economic reforms of Roosevelt's "New Deal" administration in which people of moderate means could afford pleasant housing that incorporated abundant open space and trees. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to Silver Spring to cut the ribbon for the opening of Falkland in 1937. That's how important the project was to the nation.

The Falkland Apartments were designed by prominent Washington, DC architect Louis Justement (1891-1968), who would go on to design such major civic projects in the nation's capital such as the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge (1940) over Rock Creek and the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse (1952) on Constitution Avenue.

Photo: Jerry A. McCoy, 2007

Falkland apartment units and streambed as seen through old-growth, native trees. All of this would be bulldozed for new development.

Justement's attention to detail made him astutely aware of the importance of preserving the original flora of the Falkland property, at one time part of a country estate owned by Montgomery Blair. Blair, son of Silver Spring founder Francis Preston Blair, purchased the property from his father in 1854 and constructed his home, which he named "Falkland." The name was chosen in honor of Lord Viscount Falkland, to whom the property had originally been given as part of a royal grant in the 17 th century. Featured on the property was a stream located along the base of a small valley, which Justement incorporated into the apartment project. The stream begins in the endangered north parcel, cuts under East-West Highway, and resurfaces in the south parcel.

In his book New Cities for Old: City Building in Terms of Space, Time, and Money (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1946), Justement wrote that the incorporation of the valley at Falkland "has permitted the retention of practically every tree on the original site." Some of these trees that predate the construction of Falkland still may be viewed today; mocker nut hickory, pignut hickory, American Linden, red oak, white oak, sycamore, tulip poplar, basswood, white pine, hawthorn, and cedar. To lose any of these, comprising the largest significant stand of native trees and green space in Silver Spring's Central Business District outside of Jesup Blair Park, would be tragic.

This photograph (above) by Paul M. Schmick appeared in the Evening Star, September 10, 1972, with the caption, "FALKLAND PROTEST - The Montgomery County Council faces a tough decision in the coming weeks on whether to approve to necessary rezoning to build a multi-million dollar housing-commercial complex in Silver Spring near the District line. Last week old and young alike march to protest the tearing down of the Falkland Apartments at East-West Highway and 16th Street--another necessary move if the new project is to be built." Photo courtesy Washingtoniana Division, DC Public Library.

Sadly, this is not the first time that the Falkland Apartments have been threatened. In 1966 a developer proposed razing all three of the parcels and replacing them with a $100 million, 12-building complex, whose heights would have ranged from 12 to 22 stories, totaling 2 million sq. ft. ("Dream of an Instant City," The Evening Star, 2/2/1971, p. A-1). Think today's Rosslyn or Crystal City on steroids plunked down on the west side of the Silver Spring Metro Station! Militant community opposition ensued and the project plan was shelved. Twenty years later tenants and civic activists succeeded again in saving Falkland from the wrecking ball, but a casualty of that battle was the eastern tip of the Falkland complex, known as the Draper Triangle, where a developer demolished 34 of the units originally constructed in 1936. Today in their place stands the 17-story, 400-unit Lenox Park.

Thus for over half of its existence, the Falkland Apartment complex has been threatened by development. And each time it was threatened, the civic community has rallied to defend it. The Silver Spring Historical Society is aware that the entire 22-acre complex is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and among many organizations supporting its preservation is the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Each parcel of Falkland is unique, because the architect designed it to conform to the contours of the land, a key principle in "garden city"-influenced housing. And each parcel is part of the success story of a social experiment that continues to pay dividends today, providing apartment living in a green setting — at Falkland and in the garden apartment projects it influenced across the United States.

Perhaps Mrs. Maud Robey, who was 73 years old in 1971 and had lived at Falkland for 20 years, explained it the best when the complex was first threatened, "My roots are deep here. To see these trees go down would be heartbreaking to me. I remember when they built that high-rise across the street. When I would hear those trees felled, it was just like a person going down."

If you can share with the Silver Spring Historical Society any memories, photographs, or memorabilia relating to the Falkland Apartments, please contact the Silver Spring Historical Society at P.O. Box 1160, Silver Spring, MD 20910-1160, or email sshistory@yahoo.com. The society's web site is www.sshistory.org.

No comments have been posted to this article.

Want to post a comment to this article? Click here.