Skip to main content
RETURN TO Return to WETA website Donate
Boundary Stones logo

Main navigation

  • Washington, D.C.
  • Maryland
  • Virginia
  • Video
  • About
Maryland

What's in a Name? Silver Spring

03/22/2022 in Maryland by Katherine Brodt
  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

In the 1970s, when the band Fleetwood Mac was on tour and traveling through the DMV, vocalist Stevie Nicks saw an exit sign that captured her imagination. “We were in Maryland somewhere, driving under a freeway sign that said ‘Silver Spring, Maryland,’” she recalled in a documentary. “And I loved the name.” To Nicks, it sounded like it described a magical and “pretty fabulous” place.[1] Inspired by the name, Nicks went on to write the song “Silver Springs,” a wistful breakup anthem about a romantic ideal.

Of course, those of us familiar with the Maryland suburb may laugh at Nicks’s romantic interpretation of the name. But listening to the song has made me wonder how Silver Spring landed one of the prettiest, most mystical-sounding names in the Washington, D.C. area. Was there really a magical silver spring that once flowed through the area? Is it as pretty and idyllic as it sounds?

Actually…yeah. That’s exactly where the name comes from: a “silver spring.”

In 1830, a newspaper man named Francis Preston Blair moved his family to Washington, D.C. Blair’s editorials in the local newspaper had caught the eye of President Andrew Jackson, who wanted him to head a new pro-administration newspaper in D.C. Soon, Blair wielded a lot of political power and wealth in the city. In 1837, the family could afford to move into a luxurious townhouse on Pennsylvania Avenue NW—a house that is still known as “Blair House” and is used by traveling foreign dignitaries.[2]

The Blairs soon found that they couldn’t stand being in the city during the summer—something we can easily imagine. The heat and humidity was uncomfortable, of course, but the Blairs also believed that it threatened their health. Medical experts believed that the bad air, or “miasma,” carried diseases that threatened the health of the city’s well-to-do. Anyone who could afford to purchase a second home in the countryside could pass the summer in much more bearable conditions. So, that’s what Francis Preston Blair did.[3] But where to build his summer estate, where he could enjoy the cooler conditions of the countryside while still being close to town?

View of Blair House surrounded by trees
A view of the Blair family's "Silver Spring" summer mansion on glass negatives, taken in the 1860s. (Source: Library of Congress)

In 1918, Blair’s grandson wrote a history of Silver Spring that (supposedly) explains just how his grandfather settled on the spot for his summer mansion. It’s an origin story romantic enough to satisfy Stevie Nicks. Apparently, Blair was riding his horse through Maryland, on his way back to D.C., when the horse was startled and threw him off. When Blair finally found his horse again, it was standing near “a beautiful spring full of white sand,” which “sparkled as it rose and fell like silver.”[4] In another version of the story, it’s actually Blair’s daughter, Elizabeth, who falls off the horse and discovers the spring.[5] Perhaps the horse, Selim, should actually be credited with the discovery? In any case, Blair was captivated by the little spring and resolved to purchase the land where it flowed, eventually building his summer mansion there. Aptly, they called the new house “the Silver Spring.”

Blair’s grandson remembers that the spring featured prominently in the house’s gardens, where the family could watch the water in a grotto they constructed over it:

“The column of shining silver…ever rising, ever falling, ever sparkling in the water and the sunlight, was presided over by a marble statue of a beautiful water nymph placed there by my grandfather, and it was endless joy for me, a little country boy, to sit and watch and dream upon this exquisite combination of white marble and living water.”[6]

The “shining silver” wasn’t just a fanciful description. Other histories of the spring confirm that it was a source of mica, a mineral that gives off a metallic sparkle in the light.[7] Against the white sand, it must have had a striking effect.

As the Blairs continued to rise in prominence, their home became a popular spot for D.C. politicians and society. As one of the early members of the Republican Party, Francis Preston Blair became a friend of President Abraham Lincoln, who visited the Silver Spring mansion often. When the local area was granted a post office in 1899, it took on the name of its most famous landmark—the mansion, not the actual spring. The Blair home stood until 1954, when it was demolished to make way for modern development.[8]

View of Acorn Park in Silver Spring with a gazebo and walkway
Acorn Park in downtown Silver Spring, with its namesake acorn gazebo, is the current home of the original "silver spring." You can see the grotto next to the walkway in this photo, although the spring has since dried up. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

So, where is the famous silver spring now? Though it has apparently dried up, the location is still visible at Acorn Park in downtown Silver Spring. The acorn-shaped gazebo, the park’s namesake, definitely draws the most attention—but if you look into a little nook at the edge of the path, you can see the old grotto where the Blair family once watched the spring water flow. Certainly not as romantic as a Fleetwood Mac love song, but an interesting piece of local natural history.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Brittany Spanos, “Silver Springs: Inside Fleetwood Mac’s Great Lost Breakup Anthem,” Rolling Stone (2017), https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/silver-springs-inside-fleetwood-ma…
  2. ^ “History of the Home,” Blair House, http://www.blairhouse.org/history
  3. ^ Jerry A. McCoy and the Silver Spring Historical Society, Images of America: Historic Silver Spring (Arcadia Publishing, 2005), 7.
  4. ^ Gist Blair, “Annals of Silver Spring,” The Records of the Columbia Historical Society 21 (1918), 160.
  5. ^ McCoy, 7.
  6. ^ Ibid.
  7. ^ Hamill Kenny, The Placenames of Maryland: Their Origin and Meaning (Maryland Historical Society: 1984), 242.
  8. ^ “Acorn Urban Park,” Montgomery Parks, https://montgomeryparks.org/parks-and-trails/acorn-urban-park/

About the Author

More posts by Katherine Brodt »
Tags
What's in a Name
1830s
Silver Spring

Share

  • Share by Facebook
  • Share by Twitter
  • Share by Email

You Might Also Like

  • What's in a Name? Chevy Chase

    What's in a Name? Chevy Chase

    A comedian didn’t inspire this suburb’s name, it was actually a 500-year-old ballad!

  • Rachel Carson in Silver Spring

    Rachel Carson in Silver Spring

    Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book "The Silent Spring" helped launch the environmental movement, lived in Silver Spring.

  • What's in a Name? Georgetown

    What's in a Name? Georgetown

    As it turns out, you’ll find a lot of Georges in this D.C. neighborhood’s history

Surprise Me!

Not sure where to start reading? Let us pick a story for you!

Categories

  • DC (565)
  • Maryland (106)
  • Virginia (146)

Latest Posts

"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

03/17/2023

"DC" Really Stands for Demon Cat... Which Haunts the U.S. Capitol

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

03/10/2023

From the Mixed-Up Files of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: The Heist of 1981

The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

03/03/2023

The "Capitalsaurus": How a Dinosaur That Never Existed Became an Official Mascot of D.C.

Most Popular

"¡Tirarlo a la calle!": D.C.'s Latino Festival of 1971

06/21/2022

"¡Tirarlo a la calle!": D.C.'s Latino Festival of 1971

The Perils of Pandemic and War: Spanish Flu Brings D.C. to its Knees

08/15/2022

The Perils of Pandemic and War: Spanish Flu Brings D.C. to its Knees

Jousting Over Maryland's State Sport

05/20/2022

Jousting Over Maryland's State Sport

Tags

1860s1870s1890s1900s1910s1920s1930s1940s1950s1960s1970s1980s1990sAlexandriaArlingtonBlack HistoryBygone DCCivil WarGeorgetownMusic HistorySports HistoryWhite HouseWomen's HistoryWorld War IWorld War II
More
Historical D.C. Metro Map
Tweets by BoundaryStones
WETA

Footer menu

  • Support WETA
  • About WETA
  • Press Room
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • RSS
  • Accessibility

Contact Us

  • 3939 Campbell Avenue
    Arlington, VA 22206 | Map
  • 703-998-2600
  • boundarystones@weta.org

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

About Boundary Stones

Boundary Stones explores local history in Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland and northern Virginia. This project is a service of WETA and is supported by contributions from readers like you.

DONATE

Copyright © 2023 WETA. All Rights Reserved.

Bottom Footer

  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Guidelines