Hello stephenh:
Thanks for the interesting question!
I was able to find some information about history and the architecture
of the Silver Spring Shopping Centre.
First, have a look at:
Siver Spring - Then & Again
URL: http://www.silverspringvoice.com/archives/copy/2004/04/features_thenAgain.html
Quote: "Constructed as part of architect John Eberson?s 1938 Silver
Spring Shopping Center and Silver Theatre complex, Gulf Oil was
designed to match the rest of the Eberson?s complex. A base of dark
brick, estimated to be about three feet high, reproduced the look of
the dark composition stone base used on the shopping center façade.
The four remaining five-course sections of light brick, separated by
three single-courses of dark brick, emulated the appearance of the
shopping center?s limestone façade with inset granite bands. The
bricks used in the construction of the service station were probably
the same as those used to construct the exterior auditorium walls of
the Silver Theatre and its distinctive 'skyscraper' chimney, wide
courses of a pale yellow brick separated by narrow courses of black
glazed brick."
Reading further along in this article, you see listed among the
original tenants of the Shopping Centre:
"Silver Barber Shop, Warner Brothers? Silver Theatre, and Alexander
Jewelry and Gift Store (American Film Institute)."
Further information about the type of architecture used can be found at:
Silver Theatre
URL: http://www.adsw.org/site/MD/SilverSpring/ColesvilleRd/8619/
Quote: " The centerpiece of Silver Spring's Art Deco commercial
architecture is the 1938 Silver Theatre and Silver Spring Shopping
Center complex at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road.
Designed by world-renowned theater architect John Eberson and
developed at the height of the New Deal by the Treasurer of the United
States, William Alexander Julian, a friend of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, the theater-shopping center complex combined a cinema from
Hollywood's golden age with a motor-age shopping center designed for
easy access by automobiles."
The majority of information available centers around the theatre; I
could find no further mention of the Silver Barber Shop.
The following articles speak of the curved walls of the theatre:
Silver Threads
URL: http://www.afi.com/silver/new/nowplaying/preview/archive/4_11_5_8_03.pdf
Quote: "John Eberson, who in 1938 was the leading champion of the
atmospheric style of theatre design?a genre intended to ?transport?
the audience to a
more exotic locale?chose the curved shape of an ocean liner as the
most compelling atmospheric design for Silver Spring?s regional
theatre-goers"
Inside the Silver Theatre
URL: http://www.homestead.com/silverspringhistory/inside.html
It is quite possible that the curved walls of the barber shop came
from the same architectural style of motif that was used in the
theatre. I have no proof of this, but is it possible that a curved
wall of the theatre had the barber shop on their opposite side?
Search Strategy (on Google):
* "silver spring" "curved wall" mall OR shopping
* "silver spring" "silver barber shop"
* curved Silver Spring Shopping Center John Eberson
* Silver Spring Historical Society
I hope this information is of help.
websearcher |
