The first thing that brought me to this commercial strip in suburban Silver Spring, Maryland is this curious-looking Dunkin-Baskin Robbins. I snapped this photo quickly, sitting at a light, with the intention of looking the building up to see what it used to be:

I was thinking restaurant, like one of those old-school bar and grill places. Unfortunately, it was more boring than that:

But we’re not stopping there.

Take a look at the little strip where this store is located:

Those look like houses, fronting University Blvd.

In fact, even the bank/Dunkin building fits into the residential architecture. Look at the distances between the two former houses, and the house and the bank/Dunkin: the same.

Look at this curious line in the brick, which ends with the structure that would be the old house if it is:

Here it is from the back, Dunkin on the right, house on the left:

The bank structure, according to the property record, was built in 1975, meaning it probably began life as a different brand of bank or even something other than a bank. It’s conceivable that part of the exterior of the old house that stood on its lot was reused. Because yes, this little quasi commercial strip did begin life as the edge of a residential neighborhood.

Here’s the same view of the little strip with University Blvd running diagonally towards the bottom, in 1957. The yards became parking lots. These houses were built in 1942. The Dunkin was a demolition; there’s a vet along here, built in 1963, which was also a demolition.

Now for the Papa John’s across University:

Cute house-like building? Probably not. This one is from 1947, and looks too much like a house not to be one, I think. Look at the back: it just doesn’t have a house-like facade, it even has one of these little bumped-out rooms that suggests a small alteration.

The aerial imagery only goes back to 1957, at which time this structure was already surrounded by a parking lot. But I have to think it was a house that changed uses.

Now if we zoom out, we can see there’s a box store (a Safeway) and some other commercial stuff along here. The Papa John’s is to the left of the McDonald’s, and the Baskin/Dunkin and old houses are across the street.

Now look at this entire view in 1957:

Safeway ended up at the intersection towards the top, and the Papa John’s is that small building surrounded by a large parking area (just under the big .com). What looks like a park between the last homes and some small commercial stuff totally disappeared.

The interesting point here is that by the 1962, when the Safeway was built, this 1940s residential neighborhood had already been partially demolished, and the road expanded and rerouted. From then to now, the edges became more and more commercial. Why did that happen so early in the life of this neighborhood?

Figuring out why it happened would be another whole article. But it’s quite an interesting thing to observe.

Related Reading:

A Little Bit of Motel

A Curious Hampton Inn

The Architectural Public Domain

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