MONTGOMERY COUNTY PLANNING DEPARTMENT

THE MARYLAND-NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION

 
                      June 16, 2010 
 
 
MEMORANDUM 
 
TO:      Historic Preservation Commission 
 
FROM:    Clare Lise Kelly, Research and Designation Coordinator 
      Lisa Mroszczyk, Senior Planner   
Historic Preservation Office 
 
SUBJECT:            Nomination for designation on the Master Plan for Historic Preservation:  
  Flower Theater and Shopping Center (Resource #37/25) 
______________________________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
STAFF RECOMMENDATION 
 
Recommend to the Planning Board and County Council that the Flower Theater and Shopping Center 
(Resource #37/25) be designated on the Master Plan for Historic Preservation.  Recommend to the 
Planning Board that the resource be added to the Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites as an interim 
measure until its evaluation for Master Plan designation is complete. 
 
BACKGROUND  
 
The Historic Preservation Commission has the power and duty to research historic resources and 
recommend to the planning board that certain of them be designated as historic sites or district.  To 
support this effort, staff conducts research and initiates amendments to the Master Plan for Historic 
Preservation.  Amendments may be generated as part of an area master plan, or as part of an ongoing 
evaluation of the Locational Atlas, or through nominations by the public.   
 
The Planning Department is scheduled to update a portion of the East Silver Spring Master Plan, known as 
the Long Branch Sector Plan.  The Flower Theater and Shopping Center is located within the Long Branch 
Sector Plan boundary.  The plan is being 
updated in part due to the proposed 
Purple Line of the Metro system.  The 
purple line “Locally Preferred Alternative” 
alignment calls for the purple line to pass 
adjacent to the historic resource under 
review, with a station located nearby on 
Arliss Street at Piney Branch Road.    
 
Although the Flower Theater and 
Shopping Center is not currently 
Flower Theater/   identified on the Locational Atlas and 
Shopping Center  Index of Historic Sites, the East Silver 
Spring Master Plan of 2000, the current 
master plan for this area, identified the 
Flower Theater as a potential historic 
resource that merited evaluation(p33 of 
the plan)..  Placement on the Locational 
Atlas gives the resources interim 
BASE MAP, LONG BRANCH SCOPE OF WORK, 1‐2010
1
protection until such time as they may be designated on the Master Plan for Historic Preservation. That 
interim protection is the Moratorium on Alteration or Demolition provision of the Preservation Ordinance 
(Sec 24A‐10).  The Planning Board has the authority to add resources to the Locational Atlas.  
 
The HPC’s evaluation and recommendation on the Flower Theater and Shopping Center’s nomination will 
be incorporated into the Long Branch Sector Plan Public Hearing Draft Amendment, which the Planning 
Board will reviewat a public hearing and work session.  The Planning Board will then transmit its 
recommendations on the Long Branch Sector Plan to the County Council.  The County Council makes the 
final decision on designation of historic sites. 
   
Included with this staff report is the Maryland Historical Trust inventory form (“research form”), with 
photographs and maps.   
 
DISCUSSION  
 
The research form documents the historical and architectural significance of the Flower Theater and 
Shopping Center.   Staff finds the resource is eligible for designation under the criteria as described below: 
 
The resource meets the following criteria of the Montgomery County Preservation Ordinance, Chapter 
24A‐3: 

1a.  The historic resource has character, interest, or value as part of the development, heritage 
or cultural characteristics of the County, State, or Nation. 
After World War II, Montgomery County entered a period of rapid expansion and prosperity. The Flower
Theater and Shopping Center was constructed in response to an influx of government workers seeking
housing in the new residential subdivisions in East Silver Spring and North Takoma Park and who desired
local access to goods and services. The Flower Theater and Shopping Center represents the shift away from
downtown commercial centers to the suburbs and the increased emphasis on family.

2a.  The historic resource embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method 
of construction.
The Flower Theater and Shopping Center represents the neighborhood shopping center type that developed
in the 1930s and became more prevalent after World War II. Like the Silver Theatre and Shopping Center,
the Flower Theater and its flanking commercial structures were integral to the overall success of the
shopping center. With its strong geometric and streamline forms, reeded limestone pillars, zig-zag cornice
line, neon sign and triangular marquee, the theater is an intact representative example of an Art Deco movie
theater, a type that was characteristic of the second quarter of the twentieth century. The associated
shopping center buildings, adorned with complementary late Art Deco motifs, generally retain a high level
of integrity of form, and for some of the buildings, materials.

2b.  The historic resource represents the work of a master. 
John J. Zink was one of the great movie theater architects of the 20th century having designed more
than 200 theaters in Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia and Delaware. Zink was born in Baltimore
in 1895 and trained at the firm of Wyatt and Nölting and with renowned theater architect Thomas
Lamb. Zink was known for his functional Art Deco and Streamline designs. Several of Zink’s
theaters in Washington, DC, the Atlas (1938), Senator (1942) and MacArthur (1946), are designated
District of Columbia historic sites. Zink’s 1939 Senator Theater in Baltimore is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places and on the Baltimore City Landmarks List. The Flower Theater is one of
two known movie theaters designed by Zink in Montgomery County. Zink’s 1935 Milo Theatre in
Rockville was demolished in the 1960s. The Flower Theater is the last theater in this area designed by
Zink that remains largely intact.

2
 2e. Thee historic re esource reprresents an e
 established a  and familiarr visual featture of the 
neighbborhood, com mmunity, orr County due to its singu ular physicaal characterristic or land dscape.          
          
 
The Floower Theater and Shoppingg Center markks an importaant commerciaal center at thhe intersectionn of
Flower Avenue and Piney
P Branchh Road. The two-story
t Artt Deco movie theater and associated
a onee-story
shoppinng center is a landmark in the
t communitty and serves as the focal point
p of the suurrounding coommunity. 
   
 
Period of Significance 
 
The period nce for the reesource is 1950 to 1978.  The research
d of significan h form indicaates that the theater 
and shoppiing center en ntered a perio od of declinee starting in tthe late 1970
0s and signifiicant modificcations to 
parts of thee resource were made staarting at thatt time.  It is reecommended that those structures w with low 
material annd architectu ural integrity
y should be trreated with m more lenienccy than thosee with high orr 
moderate integrity.   
 
 

 
  High
h material and  Moderate maaterial and  Low matterial and architeectural integrity
y, 
arch
hitectural integriity   
architecturall integrity  original scale and form m
maintained 
ANNOTATED SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE M
MAP 

  N
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

3
Environmental Setting 
 
The recommended environmental setting is approximately 2.4 acres bounded by Piney Branch Avenue on 
the south and Flower Avenue to the west and includes part of lot 20 and 21 on block 1 of James H. Cissel’s 
Addition to Silver Spring. 
 

ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING: FLOWER THEATER AND SHOPPING CENTER 

Environmental 
Setting

 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
Staff recommends the Flower Theater and Shopping Center (Resource #37/25) be designated on the 
Master Plan for Historic Preservation.  Staff finds that the building is historically and architecturally significant
meeting Criteria 24A‐3(b)(1)a., (2)a., (2)b. and (2)e. as outlined in this report. Staff also recommends this 
resource be placed on the Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites as an interim measure until its 
evaluation for Master Plan designation is complete. 
 
 
Attachment: 
Flower Theater and Shopping Center MIHP Form, #37/25