Tag: Falkland - Montgomery Blair residence (Silver Spring MD)

Wikipedia says: Preston Blair permanently established his residence in Washington, D.C. in 1836 after acquiring a home on 1651 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest. The brick dwelling first became known as Blair’s House and then simply Blair House. In 1840, Blair, and perhaps his daughter Elizabeth, encountered a “mica-flecked” spring in the vicinity of Seventh Street Pike, now Acorn Park on Blair Mill Rd. off the renamed Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County, Maryland. He liked the location at present day East West Highway and Newell Street, Silver Spring, Maryland, so much that he bought the surrounding land and built a spacious summer home in 1849 which he called The Silver Spring. His son James, a naval officer, and his wife Mary lived in a two-story cottage on the estate, eventually naming it The Moorings. Blair’s other son, Montgomery, built a summer house for his family nearby, calling it Falkland; it was burned down in 1864 during a Confederate raid by General Jubal Early. Gen. Early denied any personal involvement with the destruction of Falkland and took credit for saving The Crystal Spring from plunder.