The Rockville Mall had a newspaper, and it could be as creepy as the mall was (Photos)

Montgomery County Halloween Countdown

Today, as we count down the final days to Halloween, let's take a look at the Halloween 1976 edition of The Rockville Mall Times. Yes, Rockville's ill-fated dead mall of the 1970s and 80s had its own newspaper, and it could be as creepy as many considered the mall to be. Especially the Halloween edition. Who was Mr. Barfly, and was he a denizen of the shadows of the mall? Are you encouraged, or discouraged, to visit Ransom's, with Mr. Barfly as the face of the business? His disturbing visage suggests a ransom may indeed be involved to secure your release from his clutches, and from the mall's infamous dark parking garage.

Mr. Barfly, a denizen of the darkest
corners of the Rockville Mall

"Hey, kids! Let's all pile into the station wagon and pick up a copy of Adolf Hitler by John Toland at Waldenbooks at the Rockville Mall." With Roots as the other choice highlighted, talk about a stark contrast in offerings. Some lighthearted reading for the whole family at Waldenbooks.

Name-brand leisure suits were 50% off - if Herb Tarlek didn't get to Crane's Men's Shop first and clean 'em out. It's hard to get more 70s than leisure suits. But Beyda's gave it the old college try with corduroy, gabardine and velveteen pantsuits.

The front-page story in the Halloween 1976 edition of the The Rockville Mall Times looked back at the tragic demolition of the Rockville's historic town center with an almost-giddy glee. Vinson's drugstore and the Milo theater are visible in a bustling scene from 1945. Thirty years later, the Rockville Mall fills the field of view from the same photographic vantage point (and only 20 years later, the mall itself would be demolished). 

"Progress comes to Rockville," the headline reads. "Shopping sure has changed in Rockville," the article begins. The uncredited reporter made sure to thank the city politicians who approved the demolition of most of the original, historic buildings in downtown Rockville. "During this week, Rockville Mall also salutes the City of Rockville for the many years of progressive city planning that has made Rockville a model city for responsive government, and a convenient place for residents to shop."

A 1976 mall directory shown lists more than 30 tenants. But in a sign of the mall's struggles, previous department store anchors Lansburgh and Lit Brothers were already conspicuously missing from the roster. The interesting names among the remaining tenants were Roy Rogers, Franklin Simon department store and W&J Sloane furniture (both from the same ownership group as Lansburgh and Lit Brothers, coincidentally), King's Court (an original tenant when the mall opened, the restaurant closed in 1984 when its space was replaced with an elevator shaft in the "Rockville Metro Center" makeover of the mall), Friendly's Ice Cream and Real Rich Ice Cream (2 ice cream shops! Which one was better?), Masi's Fun House (was Mr. Barfly ever lurking in there, as well?), Kurly's (what's that?), Empress Restaurant and Waxie Maxie's record store. 

In case shoppers didn't already have it penciled in on their calendars, The Rockville Mall Times noted that National Alcoholism Week was rapidly approaching on November 12. But just when the gloom became too much, the Times promised that "Santa arrives at Rockville Mall Friday, November 26 at 10 AM." After a reminder to "Support your local Rockville Mall merchant who supports you with low prices," the front page ends with the mall's 70s logo, and the tagline "GOOD NEWS/GOOD TIMES."

Fairchild Apartments in Germantown recall the golden age of Montgomery County (Photos)

Montgomery County was once the economic engine of the Washington, D.C. suburbs. Today, it's recognized as economically-moribund by everyone from The Washington Post to Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and has ceded the spotlight to Fairfax County and other booming job centers in Northern Virginia. To see how far Montgomery County has fallen, one only has to look back at its golden age, which lasted roughly from 1960 to 2000. Lockheed Martin and Marriott International are among the few remaining vestiges of that boomtime, a time when a big player like IBM had not just one, but three sites in the county. A new apartment building in Germantown pays elaborate tribute to one of the brightest jewels in Montgomery County's golden age crown, Fairchild Aircraft.

Fairchild was a major aerospace design and manufacturing firm. Its presence in Maryland included a corporate and R&D campus at 20301 Century Boulevard in Germantown, and an aircraft manufacturing plant in Hagerstown. A short runway outside the Germantown site was used by corporate executives to travel between the company's two Maryland campuses aboard a Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) turboprop airplane. Curiously, the STOL runway bore a large Iron Cross insignia - - even more curious given the background of the firm's most famous executive, one who is excluded from the tribute.

It's almost hard to believe today, but during the 1970s, the father of spaceflight had an office overlooking I-270. Wernher von Braun served as Fairchild's Vice-President of Engineering and Development from 1972 until his retirement in 1976. A brilliant and complicated man with an equally-complicated history, von Braun was a German pioneer in rocketry. He was also was a member of the Nazi Party and the SS, and fully aware of the use of slave labor that was utilized at the underground Mittelwerk V-2 rocket assembly plant, labor that was drawn from the adjacent Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp.

The U.S. government looked the other way at the questionable parts of von Braun's resume following World War II, as it did with so many former Nazis it brought to America through the controversial Operation Paperclip, ostensibly to ensure these scientific and engineering wizards didn't end up working for the Soviets. Only through dogged investigation by journalists did the wartime actions of many of these men sooner or later come to public light. Von Braun, through his work for the Department of Defense and NASA, was largely responsible for the United States winning the race to the moon in 1969. He died from cancer shortly after his retirement from Fairchild.

Fairchild Aircraft logo "easter egg"
on the Fairchild Apartments facade

The 1980s brought great changes to Fairchild. Its Hagerstown plant closed in 1984. The end of the Cold War hit the company hard. Orbital Sciences Corporation acquired the Germantown division of the firm, now known as Fairchild Space and Defense Corp., in 1994. Orbital sold FS&D Corp. to the Smiths Group in 2000. Five years later, Smiths announced it would be closing the Germantown campus, which once employed over 1000 people.

Since then, the old Fairchild campus area has slowly begun to redevelop. The latest addition is the Fairchild Apartments development at 20013 Century Boulevard. While many new apartment buildings offer little more than a gimmicky brand name and cookie-cutter design, the Fairchild Apartments development displays great thought and effort in memorializing its namesake company.

A Fairchild Aircraft logo is sculpted right into the facade of the building, for starters. One museum-quality display provides information about the history of the Germantown Fairchild campus, noting that the A-10 Thunderbolt and the landing gear for the space shuttle were both designed there. The Iron Cross runway and campus layout are depicted. It even features a photograph of the Fairchild Porter turboprop lifting off from the Germantown runway!

Another display pays tribute to the founder of Fairchild Industries, Sherman Mills Fairchild. It notes his memorial foundation in Chevy Chase, Maryland "distributes more than $35 million annually to support higher education, fine arts and cultural institutions." There's no display for von Braun.

Fairchild campus layout, including the 
runway with Iron Cross at right

Other displays feature the A-10 Thunderbolt "Warthog," also known as the "Tank Killer," and the Germantown facility's last major project, the Topex/Poseidon satellite. Designed with a NATO-Soviet European ground war in mind, the A-10 instead ended up as the most-feared nemesis of tank crews in the third-world nations America invaded in the post-Soviet era. The Topex/Poseidon mapped the topography and circulation of Earth's oceans as they had never been seen before, from its launch in August 1992 until its mission-ending malfunction in 2008. It's still up there somewhere, circling the Earth.

Down on Earth, part of the Fairchild campus is still here, as well - - albeit reclaimed by nature. Street names at a townhome development further up Century Boulevard recall Fairchild, and some of its famous products, like the C-119 "Flying Boxcar." One street there, Stol Run, is a nod to Fairchild's iconic STOL runway. More developments, especially those built on or near historic sites, should incorporate those past landmarks and associated individuals to the same degree that the Fairchild Apartments have here in Germantown.

BOX OFFICE SIGN LIGHTS UP AFTER LONG DARKNESS AT BETHESDA BLUES & JAZZ SUPPER CLUB

The long-dark, neon "Box Office" sign of the historic Bethesda Theatre was aglow once again on Wisconsin Avenue last night.

Now the home of the Bethesda Blues & Jazz supper club, opening March 1, the building is retaining much of its vintage charm. The styles of automobiles have changed, the old Pizza Hut and other nearby structures have been demolished and replaced.  But facing the theater from across Wisconsin, the scene is not all that changed from the 1940s and 50s.  Well, okay, there is an apartment building now looming over it.

The historic theatre was built in 1938, and is an example of Streamline Moderne architecture.

GLEN ECHO STREETCAR ROUTE MAP AND HISTORY (VIDEO)

Here's a video with some background, and a map overview, of a fully intact streetcar right-of-way between Georgetown and Glen Echo/Cabin John via Bethesda. The streetcar once served the former Glen Echo Amusement Park.

A future return of streetcars here is now jeopardized by a bike path plan that has designs on a segment of the right-of-way.

A SMALL PIECE OF DOWNTOWN BETHESDA HISTORY GOES ON THE AUCTION BLOCK

The ghosts of Bethesda past are haunting eBay this weekend.   A "mint condition" matchbox from Bish Thompson's Seafood Restaurant is on auction, with a starting bid of $4.99.

Bidding ends in about 48 hours.

As a lifelong Bethesda resident, I did dine at Bish Thompson's a number of times in my early years.  Prior to the construction of Bethesda Row, and other new developments, BT's was one of the few major restaurants in downtown Bethesda.

It was located on property now part of the Rosedale Park Apartments.  I was not a big fan of Bish Thompson's myself.  O'Donnell's - a neighboring seafood restaurant - was a bit better, especially the fried shrimp.

My favorite restaurant in the "old days" of Bethesda (a.k.a. the 1980s), was Hot Shoppes, at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and East West Highway.

Oh, well.

If you want to own a piece of downtown Bethesda history, it's possible.

But I wonder how a Bish Thompson's matchbox ended up in Pittsfield, New Hampshire.

BETHESDA ROW'S RAILROAD HISTORY UNEARTHED - LITERALLY!

Excavators digging at the site of former Public Parking Lot 31 have had a shocking encounter with Bethesda's past.

After digging several feet beneath the lot surface, they struck something hard.  Further clearing revealed still-intact railroad tracks, that had been hastily buried in Montgomery County's rush to redevelop today's Bethesda Row area.

Yes, Bethesda was railroad town - a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad town, on the Georgetown Branch.

While newer residents know this right of way as the Capital Crescent Trail, it originally was a freight railroad between its junction with the Metropolitan Branch near Lyttonsville in Silver Spring, and the Georgetown waterfront.

The area around Lot 31 on Bethesda Avenue was home to industrial plants and a rail switching yard.  I'm not sure if this particular track was used for switching, or if it was a spur to a factory.

How can the rails still be connected under all that weight?  I know that when the railroad was taken over by the Chessie System, the company retracked the Georgetown Branch with higher-quality, welded rail.

Unfortunately for young railroads fans like me, CSX abandoned the Georgetown Branch in the mid-80s.  The Apex Building (Regal Bethesda 10) was not there at the time.  Wisconsin Avenue - unbeknownest to many - actually crosses the railroad right-of-way on a bridge.  I remember looking down off the sidewalk on the side of that bridge, waiting for the rare train to enter downtown Bethesda.  More homeless people emerged than trains, usually.

The spot near the front of Barnes and Noble used to actually be home to a B&O rail office.  To a child like me, however, the railroad was permanently associated with the Chessie System and its classic locomotive paint scheme.

There is a ton of history in Bethesda, and much is related to the Georgetown Branch.

First of all, railroad historians have recognized the Georgetown Branch as an engineering triumph when it was completed, just about a century ago.

Second, did you know that all of the heavy stone used to build the Lincoln Memorial got there by train - on the Georgetown Branch?  Yes, the memorial you visit today once passed through Bethesda in pieces, on its way into the District.

One other favorite piece of Georgetown Branch history of mine:  the railroad played host to the world's oldest operating steam engine - The John Bull - in 1981, if I remember correctly.

Alas, all good things come to an end.  The tracks were torn up in the early 90s.  The Capital Crescent Trail that has become such a valued parkland, came to exist partly by accident.  Rumors of passenger and commuter trains being added to the Georgetown Branch had been heard since 1955, when the Montgomery County Council first asked the B&O for permission to do just that.   The B&O's response?  "Get lost!"  Or something like that.

My heartbreak at the abandonment announcement was only tempered by the promise that commuter rail service would soon begin, and the county soon purchased the route from CSX.

But wealthy residents along the Georgetown Branch in Bethesda had no intention of allowing this.  Working with county and state officials, they had the tracks removed at tremendous expense.

There would be no more trains in Bethesda.

But now there is the CCT, which gets tremendous use by residents and tourists alike.

Still, it's worth pointing out that had CSX kept trains running, everything we have around Bethesda Row today would still have been possible.

The fact that the tracks were not removed by the county, and they simply laid the parking lot on top, shows what a rush they were in for developer profits at the time.

Today, a new developer project at the same site [The Darcy] is disrupting cyclists and pedestrians on the CCT, and causing traffic and parking problems for everyone visiting Bethesda Row.  Mostly because the county put developer profits ahead of a common-sense plan to time closures of downtown parking facilities, and build new ones concurrently.

The more things change...

But at least on Bethesda Avenue, the railroad is getting the last laugh.