SILVER SPRING, MD – The Montgomery County
Planning Board today decided that a Silver Spring 1930s-era complex of garden apartments, a portion of which had been proposed to be replaced with high-rise
apartment buildings and stores, should be considered eligible for historic
designation.
Called the Falkland Apartments, the complex at
East-West Highway and 16th Street was built between 1936 and 1938 in
the wake of federal New Deal programs that brought an influx of new residents
to the Washington, D.C., region. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt cut the ribbon at
the Falklands dedication in 1937.
Board members agreed that the complex merited eligibility
for historic designation, saying that the Falklands represents a key part of history
and should be preserved even as the county approves more dense projects in downtown
Silver Spring.
“This is a very good example of suburban apartment design
and architecture,” said Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson. “The idea of preserving
historic and architecturally important communities even in dense urban areas
may be as important, if not more important, than preserving them somewhere
else. This is a rare opportunity to preserve something of real value.”
Their decision followed the recommendation of county
historic preservation staff, the county Historic Preservation Commission and
more than 20 people who testified yesterday in favor of finding it eligible for
preservation. Staff pointed out the Falklands’ connection to New Deal history,
praised its Colonial revival architecture and said its two- and three-story
layout in a natural setting added complexity and interest to the design of
downtown Silver Spring.
The board’s consideration of the historic
eligibility request was triggered when the owner of the Falklands property submitted
an application to the Planning Department to build a mix of apartments and
stores on about a third of the complex on the north part of the site.
The board’s action sends the Falklands to be
considered under the full historic designation process – through the Historic
Preservation Commission (HPC), to the Planning Board and then to the County
Council – for a final decision on whether to actually designate the property as
a historic landmark.
Properties on the list are protected from
significant alterations, although other Montgomery County development projects
on historic sites have occurred with HPC and Planning Board oversight.
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