An Ever-Flowing Tribute

Don't it always seem to go,
that you don't know what you've got til its gone.
Pave paradise, put up a parking lot.

-joni mitchell



THE COMMUNITY OF SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND DERIVES
ITS NAME FROM THIS SPRING, DISCOVERED IN 1840 BY
FRANCIS PRESTON BLAIR AND HIS DAUGHTER, ELIZABETH,
WHILE RIDING ON HORSEBACK IN THE WOODS BEYOND
WASHINGTON. RAYS OF SUN ON MICA SAND PARTICLES IN
THE WATER CAUSED MR. BLAIR TO NAME IT “THE SILVER
SPRING.” THIS ALSO IDENTIFIED HIS ESTATE AND SUMMER
HOME BUILT IN 1842.

THIS PARK WAS ACQUIRED IN 1942 BY THE MARYLAND
NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION. IT
WAS RESTORED AND DEDICATED ON MAY 23, 1955 BY THE
FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS AS AN EVER-FLOWING TRIBUTE
TO THE MEN AND WOMEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GREATNESS
OF SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND, AND ITS BRIGHT FUTURE
THROUGH CIVIC AND COMMUNITY SERVICE.


When I started work in silver spring in 1990,
this little park became one of my favorite lunch spots
and I delighted in finding a flowing spring so near the city.

In the late 1990's, the ramshackle stores and
parking next door were torn down in favor of building
a large, modern department store. The store went
bankrupt almost immediately and was resold for office space.
The process of digging the foundation disrupted the
delicate subterranean capillaries feeding the spring
and it stopped flowing, forever.

Several years later, the little park was restored again,
with new slate walkways, some nice perennial flowers and
bushes, and a few benches. Someone I guess realized the faux pas
and so an electric pump was installed near the spring and
hidden under a steel cover made to look like a big rock.
To date it has not been turned on.

I really don't need to say anything, do I?