Last month I profiled a couple of pre-WWI homes located in Silver Spring Park, more familiarly known as E. Silver Spring. This historic neighborhood was surveyed in 1905. Its borders were originally Bonifant Street on the north, Cedar Street and Carroll Lane on the east, Sligo Avenue on the south, and Georgia Avenue on the west.

Anyone who today walks the east-west streets between Georgia Avenue and Fenton Street, an area known for the past few years as Fenton Village, would be hard pressed to realize that this major portion of Silver Spring's Central Business District was once a vibrant residential neighborhood.

Seventy-five years ago the only businesses located in this area fronted Georgia Avenue and backed up to an alley that ran parallel to Georgia that extended between Sligo and Thayer avenues. Today this alley is named Mayor Lane, after Norman Lane (1911-1987). To the east of the alley were located 45 residential structures as delineated on the 1931 Klinge Property Atlas of Montgomery County, Maryland, Vol. 1.

Thirty-six of these homes were of wood-frame construction with nine being built out of more expensive brick. Little photographic evidence has survived of these homes, the majority of which were demolished starting as early as the 1930s when Silver Spring's business district began expanding east from Georgia Avenue. The few photos that have surfaced depict a fascinating range of architectural styles, from quaint bungalows to what I term "Takoma Park" houses; American four squares that would have looked right at home in our neighboring community.

In 1927 the bungalow located at 911 Thayer Avenue was owned by builder Henry Mortimer Hawkins and his wife Mary Katherine. Mr. Hawkins had moved to Silver Spring seven years earlier and was a member of Grace Episcopal Church and the Silver Spring Masonic Lodge. His wife passed away in the house in 1940 and Mr. Hawkins died eight years later at the age of 81 in his daughter's home on Easley Street.

Two decades later this address was home to 12-year-old Flora Goul and her Boston terrier "Butch," that is until someone stole him from the house's deep back yard that extended all the way to Bonifant Street. Published in the May 8, 1947 Washington Post "The District Line" column was Flora's appeal to the person who had her dog, "...feed him carrots every day. If he isn't feed carrots he will get a skin disease." No follow-up story ever appeared reporting if Flora and Butch were reunited.

Flora Goul and her dog "Butch." Courtesy Washingtoniana Division, DC Public Library.

Between 1953 and 1956 the house served as the first of many locations of the Pennyworth Shop, a thrift store operated by members of Silver Spring's Grace Episcopal Church. Today this popular business may be found one block north at 955 Bonifant Street. Perhaps a connection lies between Mr. Hawkins' ownership of the house and its occupation by Pennyworth?

911 Thayer Avenue as it appeared ca. 1953. Courtesy Grace Episcopal Church.

A portion of the Safeway parking lot occupies 911 Thayer today. Photo by Jerry A. McCoy.

Two doors up the street was 915 Thayer, the home of Fred L. Lutes (1889-1966) and his wife Louise Carolyn from 1915 to 1951. Lutes was one of the pioneers of modern Silver Spring, helping to establish the Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Dept. in 1914. He joined the Silver Spring National Bank in 1923, eventually becoming its president when it became Suburban Trust in 1951.

915 Thayer Avenue as it appeared ca. 1915. Note the hammock on the porch! Courtesy Sandy Lutes and SSHS.

The Lutes family sitting on the front porch of 915 Thayer Avenue ca. 1915. (L-R) Fred, Lawrence, Mildred, and Louise. Courtesy Sandy Lutes and SSHS

By 1930 this large, three-story house, whose back yard also extended to Bonifant Street, was probably just the right size for the Lutes' four children, Mildred, Lawrence, Edna, and Stanley to run around in. The home was sold in 1965 and razed, replaced almost immediately by a non-descript automotive repair shop that is today occupied by Takoma Old Town Auto Service.

Automotive repair garage located on site of 915 Thayer since 1965. Photo by Jerry A. McCoy.

At least ten times a week I walk up and down Thayer Avenue on my way to/from the Silver Spring Metro station. As a social historian it is hard to not think about these families and all of the others that called the 900-block home. For me the specter of lives lived continues to emanate from these long gone places.

There are probably more vintage photographs yet to be found of the many historic homes constructed in the early 20^th century in Silver Spring Park. If you have an image of one of these houses, please email me at sshistory@yahoo.com or write Silver Spring Historical Society, PO Box 1160, Silver Spring, MD, 20910. Our web site is www.sshistory.org. Thank you.