Editing Silver Spring, Maryland (section)

===19th century===
The Blair, Lee, Jalloh, and Barrie families, three politically active families of the time, are tied to Silver Spring's history. In 1840, [[Francis Preston Blair]], who later helped organize the modern [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], along with his daughter, Elizabeth, discovered a spring flowing with chips of [[mica]] believed to be the now-dry spring visible at [[Acorn Park]].<ref name="montgomeryParks" /><ref name="wamu_2014-04-04" /><ref name="cannonroades" /> Blair was looking for a site for his summer home to escape the summer heat of [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name= centuries>Sween, Jane C.; Offutt, William. ''Montgomery County: Centuries of Change''. American Historical Press, 1999. {{ISBN|1-892724-05-7}}.</ref> Two years later, Blair completed a 20-room mansion he dubbed "Silver Spring" on a {{convert|250|acre|sqkm|0|adj=on}} country homestead. In 1854, Blair moved to the mansion permanently.<ref name= centuries/> The house stood until 1954.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.silverspringvoice.com/archives/copy/2003/08/features_thenAgain.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040803123706/http://www.silverspringvoice.com/archives/copy/2003/08/features_thenAgain.html |archive-date=August 3, 2004 |title=Silver Spring Then & Again |access-date=March 3, 2009 |last=McCoy |first=Jerry A. |date=August 2003 |work=Takoma Voice}}</ref>

By 1854, Blair's son, [[Montgomery Blair]], who became [[United States Postmaster General|Postmaster General]] under [[Abraham Lincoln]] and represented [[Dred Scott]] before the [[United States Supreme Court|U.S. Supreme Court]], built the Falkland house in the area.

By the end of the decade, Elizabeth Blair married [[Samuel Phillips Lee]], third cousin of future [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] leader [[Robert E. Lee]], and gave birth to a boy, [[Blair Lee I|Francis Preston Blair Lee]], who went on to become the first popularly elected [[United States Senate|Senator]] in U.S. history.

During the [[American Civil War]], [[Abraham Lincoln]] visited the Silver Spring mansion several times, where he relaxed by playing [[town ball]] with Francis P. Blair's grandchildren.<ref>{{cite web |last=McCoy |first=Jerry A. |date=February 6, 2009 |title=Abe Lincoln in Silver Spring |work=Silver Spring Voice |url=http://www.takoma.com/ssthenagain/2009/02/abe-lincoln-in-silver-spring.html |access-date=March 3, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090211164705/http://www.takoma.com/ssthenagain/2009/02/abe-lincoln-in-silver-spring.html |archive-date=February 11, 2009}}</ref>

In 1864, [[Confederate States Army]] General [[Jubal Anderson Early|Jubal Early]] occupied Silver Spring before the [[Battle of Fort Stevens]]. After the engagement, fleeing Confederate soldiers razed Montgomery Blair's Falkland residence.<ref>{{cite news |title=Interesting Particulars of the Rebel Invasion |work=Evening Star |date=July 15, 1864 |page=2 |url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX-NB&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=C60H50SGMTQxMTY2ODA4Ni43NTc1ODE6MTo3OnJhLTk2NjY&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=6&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=6&p_docnum=2&p_docref=v2:13D5DA85AE05A305@EANX-NB-13DAD1F38DE812E8@2402068-13D889C51F2B37B0@1-13DB45353A703C50@ |access-date=September 25, 2014 |archive-date=February 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207050722/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/home/login?destination=infoweb.newsbank.com%3Fdb%3DEANX-NB%26wedirect%3Dtrue |url-status=live}}</ref>

At the time, there was a community called Sligo located at the intersection of the Washington-Brookeville Turnpike and the Washington-Colesville-Ashton Turnpike, now named Georgia Avenue and Colesville Road.<ref name= centuries/> Sligo included a tollhouse, a store, a post office, and a few homes.<ref name= centuries/> The communities of [[Woodside (Silver Spring, Maryland)|Woodside]], [[Forest Glen, Maryland|Forest Glen]], and Linden were founded after the Civil War.<ref name= centuries/> These small towns largely lost their separate identities when a post office was established in Silver Spring in 1899.<ref name= centuries/>

By the end of the 19th century, the region began to develop into a town of size and importance. The [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]]'s [[Metropolitan Branch]] opened on April 30, 1873, and ran through Silver Spring from Washington, D.C., to [[Point of Rocks, Maryland]].<ref>{{cite news |title=The Metropolitan Railroad |work=The Evening Star |date=April 30, 1873 |page=4 |url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/HistArchive/?p_product=EANX-NB&p_theme=ahnp&p_nbid=C60H50SGMTQxMTY2ODA4Ni43NTc1ODE6MTo3OnJhLTk2NjY&p_action=doc&s_lastnonissuequeryname=8&d_viewref=search&p_queryname=8&p_docnum=2&p_docref=v2:13D5DA85AE05A305@EANX-NB-13E15D48DBD605B8@2405279-13E0BBB8D13E65F0@3-13E1E2DA44A9F840@ |access-date=September 25, 2014 |archive-date=February 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207050723/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/home/login?destination=infoweb.newsbank.com%3Fdb%3DEANX-NB%26wedirect%3Dtrue |url-status=live}}</ref>

The first suburban development appeared in 1887 when Selina Wilson divided part of her farm on present-day Colesville Road ([[U.S. Route 29 in Maryland|U.S. Route 29]]) and Brookeville Road into five- and ten-acre ({{gaps|20|000}} - and {{gaps|40|000}}  m<sup>2</sup>) plots. In 1892, [[Blair Lee I|Francis Preston Blair Lee]] and his wife, Anne Brooke Lee, gave birth to [[E. Brooke Lee]], who is known as the father of modern Silver Spring for his visionary attitude toward developing the region.<ref name=WW1>{{cite web |last=Dunaway |first=Karen |title=Edward Brooke Lee |url=http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/001500/001576/html/1576bio.html |work=Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series) |publisher=Maryland State Government |access-date=April 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113062808/http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/001500/001576/html/1576bio.html |archive-date=November 13, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>