"History Mystery" Solved!

The New Year commences with exciting news that a long-time Silver Spring "history mystery" has finally been solved.  For years the architect of the 1927 Silver Spring Masonic Temple, located at 8435 Georgia Avenue, has been unknown.  Ironically the answer was right in front of me but I did not know it!

A photograph of the prominent three-story brick and limestone structure that occupies the southeast corner of Georgia and Wayne avenues appears on p. 97 of my book Historic Silver Spring.  Taken during the summer of 1927, the Masonic Temple is shown still under construction.  In front of the building is a large posted sign whose full text was not legible, at least not on the copy of the photograph housed in the Silver Spring Historical Society's archives.

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Looking east on Montgomery Avenue (today's Wayne Avenue) from Georgia Avenue, 1927.  In the center distance is the 1927 Maryland National Guard Armory, demolished in 1998 for construction six years later of the Wayne Avenue parking garage.  Photo by National Photo.  Collection of Library of Congress.

Looking east on Wayne Avenue from Georgia Avenue, January 1, 2010.  Photo by Jerry A. McCoy.

Last month I received an email informing me that a Silver Spring photograph had been posted on www.shorpy.com.  Trumpeted as the "Best Pix on the Net,"  Shorpy is an amazing vintage photography blog run by "Dave" who posts images from various photo collections housed in the Library of Congress.  While this may not sound unusual, it is what Dave does with these images that is truly special. 

Dave downloads the high-resolution tiff files from LC, cleans them up (adjusting contrast, color, etc.) and then posts them for comments.  When one clicks on the "View Full Size" link the image fills the entire computer screen and the viewer can feel (at least I do) as if they are literally looking through a window into the past.  Because the clarity of the images is so vibrant, details can be picked out that would have never been visible before, even on the original photo. 

When Shorpy posted the same 1927 photo of the Silver Spring Masonic Temple, whose original glass plate negative unbeknownst to me is housed in the Library of Congress' National Photo Company Collection, it took only a few clicks of the computer mouse to be able to easily read the full text of that sign in front of the building.  There on the sign, at the very bottom right-hand corner, could be read "Howard W. Cutler Architect."  No where was the architect ever mentioned in the newspaper articles that were published in 1927 about the building's cornerstone-laying ceremony and opening. 

Photo detail courtesy Shorpy.

Howard Wright Cutler (1883-1948) was a prominent Washington, DC/Montgomery Co. architect and Silver Spring resident.  Born in Ouray, CO, Wright began his architectural practice in Rochester, NY.  While there he co-designed the Kodak Tower (1914), world headquarters of Eastman Kodak.  During World War I Cutler was stationed as an Army architect in Washington DC and designed hospitals all over the country for the Surgeon General's office, including additions at Walter Reed Army Hospital.  Some of Cutler's other works in Washington include Eldbrooke United Methodist Church (1926) and Lincoln Congregational Temple United Church of Christ (1928).  Both of the churches are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Architect Howard Wright Cutler, 1883-1948.  Photograph from "Washington Past and Present: A History, Vol. III" (1930).

In Maryland, Cutler designed the Preinkert Field House (1931) at the University of Maryland College Park campus. From 1926 to 1934 he was the sole architect for the Montgomery County Public Schools, designing around twenty-five structures.  Among these were Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (1935), listed on the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Preservation, and the original East Silver Spring Elementary School (1927) on Silver Spring Avenue and the original Montgomery Blair High School (1934) on Wayne Avenue.  

East Silver Spring Elementary School (1927), 631 Silver Spring Avenue.  Photograph from "The Past Was Prologue VII: 1922-1965."

All that remains of the 1927 East Silver Spring Elementary School exterior is the roofline of the original auditorium encased in latter construction.  January 1, 2010 photo by Jerry A. McCoy.

The Masonic Temple is not the only Cutler-designed building located in Silver Spring.  Half a mile south at 7900-12 Georgia Avenue is Cutler's North Washington Realty Co. Building (1928-34), located directly across the street from Historic Jesup Blair Park.  This structure is listed on the Montgomery County Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites.  Cutler also designed the nearby Church of the Ascension (1930) at 633 Sligo Avenue.

North Washington Realty Co. Building, 7900-12 Georgia Avenue, January 1, 2010.  The left half was constructed in 1928 and the right half in 1934.  Photo by Jerry A. McCoy.

Church of the Ascension Episcopal/Anglican (1930), 633 Sligo Avenue, January 1, 2010.  Photo by Jerry A. McCoy.

At least the church's cornserstone is still visible.  The 1927 cornerstone on Cutler's Silver Spring Masonic Temple (below) was callously covered over in 1998 during a "facade renovation" despite pleas to the building's owner from the Silver Spring Historical Society.  The Freemasonry symbol consists of a carpenter's square and compass, which represents the interaction between mind and matter.  Photos taken 2010 and 1998 respectively by Jerry A. McCoy.

And what surely must be unusual for the time is the fact that Cutler's daughter, Katherine Cutler Ficken (1911-1968), was also an architect.  Mrs. Ficken, who also was a Silver Spring resident, designed the American Instrument Co. Building at 8040 Georgia Avenue.  Last occupied by Mayorga Coffee Co., this building was constructed in three stages between 1935 and 1943.  Together the father/daughter architects designed buildings at the University of Maryland. 

American Scientific Instrument Co. Building, 8040 Georgia Avenue, as it looked in 1948.  Photo by Joseph C. Reynolds.  Collection of Silver Spring Historical Society.

Downtown Silver Spring is fortunate to have these and many other early to mid 20^th century buildings designed by an array of talented architects.  The presence of these attractive structures adds variety and historicity to our community's streetscape and they must be preserved.

 

 

Cutler also designed the Warner E. Pumphrey Funeral Home (1938) at 8424 Georgia Avenue.  This structure was razed in the early 1980s for construction of 8484 Georiga Avenue.  Image from 1950s matchbook.  Collection of SSHS.

 

If you know of any other buildings designed by Howard Wright Cutler or Katherine Cutler Ficken, please contact me at (301) 537-1253, sshistory@yahoo.com, or Silver Spring Historical Society, PO Box 1160, Silver Spring, MD, 20910.  Our web site is www.sshistory.org.  Thank you.

 

To learn more about Howard Wright Cutler's Washington, DC churches, visit Scenes from the Past.