National Park Seminary, Service Buildings, Between Linden Lane & Beach Drive, Silver Spring, Montgomery County, MD

Significance: The service buildings were essential for the operations of the school. Some of them, including the power plant and fire house, still are. Even though the buildings were utilitarian in function, Cassedy clad them in Spanish Mission Revival designs. The design complimented the picturesque character of the other campus buildings, however, their matching facades and their location identified them as a distinct set of structures. The Mission style became popular in the 1890s, at the time when there was a revival of interest in historic American cultures and a romanticization of the American West. Many of the features, including prominent curved-and-notched parapets, round arches, and bell towers were derived from eighteenth-century Catholic mission churches of the Far West. The design proliferated in suburban architecture around the turn of the century. The California building at the 1893 Chicago Exposition was one of the first examples of the Mission Revival style.
Survey number: HABS MD-1109-V
Building/structure dates: 1902-1927 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: after. 1940- before. 1950 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1984 Subsequent Work