Architectural artifacts of 1930s car culture
Boom in automobiles marked by two Walsh Motor Company structures

On December 7, 2003, a two-alarm fire in downtown Silver Spring caused $1.5 million in structural and content damage to 8511-25 Colesville Road. A dozen small independent businesses located in the two-story brick building, situated between Georgia and Ramsey avenues, were immediately shuttered. Among them were the popular Carolina Kitchen and Omega Restaurant.

1938 architectural rendering of Walsh Motor Company, 8511 Colesville Road. Collection of SSHS Archives.

Nearly three and a half years later the structure remains empty and boarded up. I can only imagine what the Discovery Communications executives sitting across the street, along with thousands of daily passersby, think should be done with the building. Situations like this give old buildings a bad reputation and keep me, a historic preservationist, up at night. Yes, this structure originally constructed in 1938 as the Walsh Motor Company, is a historic building that deserves to be restored to its original architectural design and incorporated as part of the continued revitalization of downtown Silver Spring.

The story of the Walsh building actually begins a little earlier when, in 1934, William A. "Buck" Walsh opened a Ford automobile sales and service center at 8000 Georgia Avenue.

Former Walsh Motor Co., 8511-8525 Colesville Rd. Photo taken March 21, 2007 by Jerry A. McCoy.

The structure, constructed by E. Brooke Lee's North Washington Realty Co., was located on the triangular lot formed at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and East-West Highway. Since 1952 this location has been the home of Tires of Silver Spring, Inc. ("Concern for Safety!"). In 2002 the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission released its "Historic Resources Survey Report: Silver Spring Central Business District," which included 8000 Georgia Avenue.

The report stated that the structure was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places "as it is representative of its type, being an early-twentieth century Art-Deco Style automobile related service center."

Listing for Marcy Motors, occupant of 8000 Georgia Avenue after Walsh Motor Co. relocated. From Summer-Fall 1940 C&P Telephone Directory of Takoma Park, Silver Spring and Vicinity. Collection of SSHS Archives.

The Walsh Motor Co. business continued to grow due to its location at a major crossroads, convenient to the thousands of motorists who drove by daily. Within three years the business had outgrown its building and Buck began looking for a larger site upon which to build.

With great fanfare a full page advertisement appeared in the March 11, 1938 Maryland News announcing "New Home of Ford and Lincoln-Zephyr in Silver Spring."

Located at 8511 Colesville Road, the Walsh Motor Co. building housed the automobile dealership's sales and service center, which occupied most of the ground floor. The remaining ground storefront space as well as the entire second floor was available for lease by other businesses.

Tires of Silver Spring Inc., 8000 Georgia Avenue. Photo taken March 21, 2007 by Jerry A. McCoy.

The March 11th open house featured Buck personally conducting tours of his new facility that began at 6:00 p.m. that evening. At 9:00 p.m. visitors were treated to motion pictures (titles/subject matter unknown) and from 10:00 p.m. until midnight a dance was held, probably in the service bays! Utilizing "cross marketing," Buck included in his advertisement the business cards of eleven local contractors who "were glad to play a part in the construction of this modern building."

The architect of the building was Silver Spring resident Joseph J. Schlosser (1890-1966). Born in Czechoslovakia, Schlosser came to the United States in 1902 and lived in Greensboro, NC where he became a naturalized citizen. Moving to Washington, DC during W.W. I, Schlosser went on to serve as District of Columbia Municipal Architect (1930-31). The same year that the Walsh Motor Co. opened also saw the opening of Schlosser's Blair Park Gardens apartments, still located between Blair Road and Eastern Avenue at Juniper Street, across from Jesup Blair Park. Rents ranged from $55 per month for a 1-bedroom unit to $67.50 for a 2-bedroom apartment ($794 to $974 in 2007 dollars). Both rates included gas and electricity.

Architect Joseph J. Schlosser. Courtesy Harold L. Schlosser.

For those who had a little more to spend, Schlosser designed sixteen homes in the Sligo Park Hills area of Silver Spring two years later. Designed to "reflect the characteristics of early American and Colonial styles, placed on wide, forest-framed lots with deep gardens" ("Sligo Park Hills Development Will Be Opened Today," The Washington Post, May 26, 1940, pg. R4), the homes ranged in price from $6,950 to $8,850 ($101K to $129K in 2007 dollars).

Due to the increasing popularity of and dependence on the automobile, downtown Silver Spring saw an explosion of automobile-related business in the early 20 th century. From garages (to park cars) and filling stations to repair-service stations and automobile dealers, downtown Silver Spring became THE place to buy, sell, gas up or repair an automobile. In 1923 there were only two garages and one business that sold automobile accessories, all located on Georgia Avenue. By 1939 there were 28 auto-related businesses, all but eight of them located on either Georgia Avenue or Colesville Road. Today, at the intersection of these two streets, reminders of Silver Spring's automotive past have almost been fully erased. One lone filling station, located on the NW corner, is all that remains (two others used to sit on the SE and SW corners).

Advertisement from The Maryland News, March 11, 1938, p.3. Collection of SSHS Archives.

The Silver Spring Historical Society fervently hopes that the owner of 8511-25 Colesville Road fully restores the exterior of the Walsh Motor Co. building to its 1938 appearance, including recreation of its missing pediment. Removal of the currently applied battleship gray paint would alone reveal the building's amazing multi-colored brick, laid in a variety of patterns, along with the structure's limestone trim.

Incorporation of this historic structure into any development planned for the site would provide an authentic stylistic counterpoint to the Silver Theatre and Shopping Center, located diagonally across the intersection, that opened the same year.

If you can share any memories, photographs, or memorabilia relating to 8511-27 Colesville Road, or know what happened to William A. "Buck" Walsh, please contact the Silver Spring Historical Society at P.O. Box 1160, Silver Spring, MD 20910-1160, email sshistory@yahoo.com, or phone (301) 537-1253. The society's web site is www.sshistory.org.

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