For six decades, Weller’s Dry Cleaning in downtown Silver Spring was hard to miss, with its angled roof and flashy red and pink porcelain enamel panels designed to grab the attention of passing motorists in the auto-loving 1960s-era suburbs.
Historic preservation officials in Maryland’s Montgomery County considered it an iconic example of mid-20th-century Googie architecture, recommending for 20 years that the Weller’s property be designated for protection. Doing so would allow county officials to sign off on changes to the building’s exterior or its funky space-age sign.
But in November — after the property was sold and the dry cleaner had closed — the eye-catching panels disappeared beneath beige paint. So, too, did their matching striped awning and much of the exposed brick. “Silver Spring Beauty Supply” replaced the Weller’s name on the decades-old sign.
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The changes, while legal, have riled preservationists, who say precious Googie roadside architecture worthy of protection suffered severe damage. (Googie architecture is distinguished by futuristic design.)
“It could have been turned into something really attractive and cool,” said Deborah Chalfie, the preservation chair for the Art Deco Society of Washington. “Now it’s just a beige blob.”
To the Silver Spring Historical Society, the once “visually exciting corner landmark” has become “a homogenized and dreary structure that has simply vanished into the background of surrounding structures,” said its president, Jerry A. McCoy.
The new owners, who bought the building and corner lot in the 8200 block of Fenton Street from the Weller family in mid-2021, say their new tenants painted over the red and pink panels without asking. Even so, they say, they don’t understand all the fuss. They’d never heard of Googie architecture, they said, or seen any value in a building they bought with the intention of tearing down as part of redeveloping the land and two adjacent lots.
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“That place is old for sure, but there’s nothing historic about it,” said Dagmawi Lakew, 42, who manages the property owned by his mother, Bekelech Delelegne. “It’s a really old dump that needs to be gotten rid of.”
The hand-wringing over the Weller’s site is part of a broader national debate underway since the mid-1980s over the value of architecture shaped by the burgeoning mid-20th-century car culture of the United States.
Preservationists say the Googie-style dry cleaners, diners, bowling alleys and motels that first appeared in Southern California were designed to entice a growing number of consumers driving by at 35 mph or faster. They relied on loud colors, dramatic angles, fun shapes and symbols of a futuristic culture dazzled by jet travel and space flight.
Preservationists say Googie-style buildings and signs are akin to the once-denigrated Victorian homes and art deco movie theaters now cherished after escaping demolition or remodeling. But to Lakew and some pro-growth advocates, they’re unimpressive and take up land that could be better used for denser development.
“People will say, ‘I remember when that was built, so it can’t be historic,’” said Alan Hess, an Irvine, Calif., architect and historian who has written extensively about Googie architecture. “But here in Southern California, there’s a great appreciation for mid-century modern and Googie architecture. It was part of the culture, part of our history and something we don’t have today.”
In Montgomery, the controversy arises as the Fenton Village area at the southern edge of downtown Silver Spring continues to be transformed from an aging, car-oriented suburb into a more walkable, densely developed area at the heart of a vibrant Ethiopian community.
Montgomery’s historic preservation planners say the Weller’s property meets the legal criteria for protection, both for its architectural and cultural significance. They cited well-known local architect Ted Englehardt’s “bold use of color” in the red and pink panels, which created a catchy candy-cane effect. They noted the sign’s “whimsical design,” with its different shapes appearing to “float in defiance of gravity.”
“These are the iconic spots within people’s own communities,” said Rebeccah Ballo, historic preservation supervisor at the Montgomery County Planning Department.
The recent painting did not violate any laws, planners say, because the property had not been designated as historic, even if it appeared to be well on its way to that designation.
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Historic-preservation officials had recommended the site for protection since 2002 but did not start the designation process until April, when the dry cleaner closed permanently. Ballo said the historic preservation office is thinly staffed and can take years to pursue the protections it recommends.
The dry-cleaning business, which opened on the site in 1961, was last run by a family that took over after Charles Weller retired around 2012, local residents said. Weller died in 2016 at the age of 101.
Like other dry cleaners across the country, residents said, Weller’s struggled during the pandemic, as many office workers spent months working from home. In the meantime, Lakew’s mother bought the property. The beauty supply store moved in over the summer.
The county’s Historic Preservation Commission considered the property’s historical significance at a Sept. 21 public hearing, at which Lakew and his mother spoke along with their attorney at the time. In a 7-to-1 vote, the citizen commissioners agreed with planners that the building should be added to a list of sites protected from demolition or “substantial alteration” until the historic designation was decided.
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However, their recommendation needed to be approved by the county planning board. That vote was scheduled for late October but was postponed after the planning board resigned en masse in mid-October amid an alcohol scandal and escalating misconduct accusations.
About two weeks after the postponement, enthusiasts of the Weller’s building said, out came the beige paint.
Lakew said the timing wasn’t intentional. He and his mother had objected to the site being designated historic — a possibility his mother hadn’t known when she bought the property. But if the beauty store tenants had asked, he said, he and his mother would not have allowed them to paint while the building was being considered for protection. They wouldn’t “pick a fight,” he said, with a county government whose building permits they would need to redevelop the property.
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“By the time we found out, it was already painted,” Lakew said. “We didn’t have anything to do with the painting.”
Elizabeth Gedamu, the beauty supply store owner, said she only meant to cover graffiti and “very old” paint and had no idea the building or sign might be historic. She chose beige, she said, to blend with neighboring buildings and didn’t ask Lakew for permission to paint because she didn’t think she needed to.
“I didn’t know it wasn’t supposed to be painted,” Gedamu said. “I was trying to make it look nice.”
In the District, an owner cannot change the exterior of a building once the city’s Historic Preservation Office recommends that it be considered a historic landmark until the case has been decided. Violators may be required to repair any damage, according to Mekdy Alemayehu, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Office of Planning.
Montgomery County has no such law. Even so, Ballo said, it’s “exceedingly rare” for owners to make major changes while a property is under consideration for preservation status without first consulting the county’s historic-preservation planners. She said property owners also are told that if their building is deemed historic, they can use government tax credits to restore the exterior in an approved way.
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“As a rule, we try our best to work very closely with property owners to maintain open lines of communication to make sure the integrity of the property carries through while it’s being reviewed,” Ballo said.
County planners say the Weller’s building and sign are still worth saving because of their remaining Googie features, especially since the property is one of three commercial Googie sites left in Montgomery. The owners could restore the panels but cannot be required to do so, Ballo said.
Ballo said planners will ask the recently appointed interim planning board in late February to approve protecting the Weller’s building and sign from demolition. They also will ask the board to recommend that the county council include it in the county’s Master Plan for Historic Preservation, which would prohibit exterior changes without approval.
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Lakew said he is fed up with the “Googie architecture garbage” talk and a historic-designation process that has been “beyond humiliating.” He said he and his family should be free to develop their property as they see fit. It was his late father’s dream, he said, to redevelop the Weller’s lot and the family’s two adjacent parcels into a mid-rise apartment building with a ground-floor cafe or other retail.
He said he has no plans to remove the beige paint.
“What’s happened already happened,” Lakew said. “We’re just going to see how it plays out.”
Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.
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