Silver Spring, Maryland: History of the Name and Francis Preston Blair
Andrew Jackson’s editor found a mica-flecked spring outside Washington in 1840. His country estate gave Silver Spring its name.
1830s
Washington in the 1830s was a city of contradictions, with the slave trade operating openly in the shadow of the Capitol. The decade also saw the first rumblings of what would become the Smithsonian and a growing debate over slavery that would define the next three decades. These posts dig into antebellum Washington at its most complicated.
Why Is It Named Bloomingdale? The $600 Estate Behind DC’s Trendiest Neighborhood
Bloomingdale is not named after the department store. George Beale, a hero of the War of 1812, bought a 10-acre estate here for just $600 in 1823.