November 2008
by Jerry McCoy
This past summer marked the 50th anniversary of a redevelopment project that not only destroyed a historic building of local, state, and national importance but forever altered the natural topography of our community. The structure was Montgomery Blair's post-Civil War mansion Falkland, which sat on the crown of a tree-covered 360 ft. hill overlooking downtown Silver Spring.
by Jerry McCoy
This past summer marked the 50th anniversary of a redevelopment project that not only destroyed a historic building of local, state, and national importance but forever altered the natural topography of our community. The structure was Montgomery Blair's post-Civil War mansion Falkland, which sat on the crown of a tree-covered 360 ft. hill overlooking downtown Silver Spring.
If you've ever patronized any of the businesses at the Blairs Shopping Center, located at the corner of East-West Highway and Colesville Road, you might find it hard to believe that this was where such an estate stood. On September 7, 1958, at the request of Blair family descendents who wanted to develop the property, the mansion was burned downed by the Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Dept. Prior to the conflagration, hundreds of century-old trees that graced the hill upon which the house stood were cut down. In short order the hill was graded into oblivion and in its place was created a blank slate for construction of a shopping center.
Southwest elevation of Falkland Manor taken circa mid-1950s by Don Fugitt Studio, 914 Thayer Avenue. Collection of SSHS.
Continue reading Burning down the house.
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