Maryland Daily PhotoEvery Week Day a New Picture from MD

I said before that I’d offer you a reminder that this Sunday marks the start of shark week.  Chompy is ready!

The picture above comes from contributing photographer, Royela, who was walking through Silver Spring at night and thought the statue of Norman Lane would make a good MDP post. I think she’s right.

Norman Lane was  homeless man who, in a strange twist, became beloved by his neighbors.   He was so well regarded, and so frequently found downtown, that locals affectionately began to refer to him as the Mayor of Silver Spring.   Today, this statue sits near an alley that has been named mayor lane, in his honor.   I can do little justice to the man’s story as I know nothing that I haven’t read or heard from others.

For that reason, I made a trip to photograph the statue in the daytime and to try to give you a better understanding of Norman by showing you the plaque below his statue.

As you can see, the years since 1991 haven’t treated that plaque very well.

I can offer another picture of the statue that I took in the daylight, and a few links to some other sources of information.

This article has a section about the artist behind the bust and tells a bit of the story of Norman giving flowers to local ladies.  http://silverspringhistory.homestead.com/ArtistsEye.html

The downtown silver spring organization has a summary of the statue as well  http://www.silverspringdowntown.com/go/the-mayor

When I first started MDP, I thought  this guy was one of the things that I could reliably feature on the site. However, as soon as MDP came into being, the shark disappeared.

If you aren’t sure where this is, it’s the headquarters for the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring.  When they take out the inflatable shark and make him look like he’s swimming through the building, it can mean only one thing: Shark Week is near.  One of the Silver Spring community blogs that I follow has named him “Chompy” and I have to follow suit because I think it is a great name.

I’ll post more pictures when shark week is closer, as it thing this should be satisfactory for now.

Of course, if you are the guy whose window now looks at the back of an inflatable shark, you would probably find this completely unsatisfactory.

A few years back, the Silver Spring B&O station was lovingly rebuilt by members of the community of Silver Spring.  It is not the first station on this site, but is still an important piece of the area’s history.    It was built in 1945, served as a B&O station, and Amtrak station, and as a MARC commuter rail station.   

I like this picture because the large building behind it is just one of the many that have been built and are being built around that area.   When communities are growing and are finding more wealth and progressing forward, it’s good to see that people can care enough to set aside some pieces of history like Acorn Park and like this station, so that we can enjoy the (in this case moderately) old as well as the new.  

This is the top of a giant Acorn.   Not a real acorn from a really large tree, but a fake acorn atop a gazebo in Silver Spring.   Why an Acorn?  Well I don’t know that.  But the park in which is resides and which is named after the gazebo has another unique feature to it…. the actual Silver Spring.  Though many people want to call it Silver Springs, there is actually only one spring.  Either way, the story goes:  when Francis Preston Blair was riding out of DC with his daughter, she fell off her horse and saw a beautiful spring. (those who have seen the PBS history of Silver Spring documentary have seen a historical reinactment of this event)  The spring looked shiny like it had silver in it.  Blair became so enfatuated with the location, he made it is summer home two years later.  The acorn shaped Gazebo was installed by blair as something in which he and his family could sit and enjoy the view of the nearby spring.  Here’s a shot of the full gazebo: acorn-cropped.jpg

Here is a statue which you may recognize if you have taken a trip here since I last talked about the National Park Seminary.  Reconstuction of the Seminary is well under way and these statues, which line the newly refurbished parking area behind Main, have been cleaned.

Now that flowers are popping up everywhere, I think we can declare spring here with the third and final picture of the series.   Like this series of three photographs, I am taking my life in a new direction and leaving my old job in that dingy industrial park for a new one in the city.  So this means that you might see less photos of PG county and more of Baltimore.  However, that’s no reason to cry.  I have plenty of PG pictures stored up for the future and I will continue to share pictures of all the places I will be exploring in our great state.  

Next week will be a very special theme week that highlights some of the geographically unique qualities of Maryland.  I hope you enjoy it.     

In case you haven’t noticed.  I also purchased a new camera which made this photo possible,  and I have new software for resizing the photos for the website.  There was a definite pixelated quality to some past posts (which is odd since I was shrinking and not expanding them) that I’m hoping to avoid in the future with the new software. 

I’m going to spend the rest of this week on spring-related postings.   Not just in response to the negative light post feedback that I’ve gotten, but becasue some of you might be sitting at your desk, wondering what spring is like outside.

  I also like this picture because it was taken in Maryland.  I know that sounds weird, since this is Maryland Daily Photo.  However, as people flock down to DC this weekend for the Cherry Blossom Festival, some will probably will never realize that there are thousands of cherry trees lining the streets their own state.  So I hope that if you haven’t noticed any of them, you will keep your eye out.  If you happen to photograph one, send it in and maybe I’ll post it.  

While this may look like a large house, the subject of this photo is actually the centerpiece of one of the most interesting places in Maryland.  This building began in the late 1800’s as a hotel getaway in Maryland.  It was located right off the railroad tracks and catered to those who lived in DC and sought some peaceful relaxation in the wooded suburb of Forest Glen.  

While it was a great idea to create such a getaway, this wasn’t the only one.  Within just a few years, many of these inns had gone out of business.  This particular inn had the good fortune of finding a new owner who was interested in turning the hotel into a girls finishing school.   What it became was the National Park Seminary.   Slowly through the ambitions of two owners, the school became very popular with the elite children of America.   More importantly, it expanded physically.  Stretching out on all sides from its original inn.  Buildings that weren’t connected by walls were connected by elevated, and covered, walkways so that the girls could safely move from building to building.   Many new buildings featured a different king of architecture.  Still standing is a Pagoda, an Italian Villa, a Coliseum, and a windmill.  

Why then, with all this interesting architecture, am I giving you a picture of the building in the center, which in relation to others, may be a bit boring.  The reason is because not many people are afforded this view.  It is the view from the original approach of the original train station to the “Main,” which is now obstructed by I-495 and its sound barriers.   It is a view you can’t get from driving behind or around the school but only by getting over the creepiness and walking around the place. 

Creepiness?   Yeah, well… you see the rest of the story isn’t so happy.   The school was closed down and annexed by the Army during WWII as part of Walter Reed hospital.  Around the 70’s the Army started to abandon certain buildings and parts of the grounds, leaving much of the place in disrepair and subject to vandalism.   Right now, after decades of mistreatment by the government, a team of private developers are turning it into condos.

 In the future, I’ll post more pictures of this place as it’s one of my favorites.   (I’ll include pictures of the house in Chevy Chase where I believe someone has brazenly placed stolen statuary from the Seminary right in their yard.)  In the mean time check out this site for more info, and for pictures of the other, supposedly “more interesting,” architectural elements on the campus.