The little Chinese kitchen that was a Little Tavern was little more than a pile of dust Thursday.
The Golden House, a small hut on the corner of Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street, has been demolished to make way for Silver Spring’s new library. It’s unclear when the wrecking ball did its business, but the site was level on Thursday evening (below).
The 800 square-foot structure was built in 1974 and originally served as a Little Tavern burger shop, Jerry McCoy, of the Silver Spring Historical Society, told the Takoma Voice in 2006. By 1992, it had been converted into the Golden House Chinese take-out joint.
The county bought out the property last year, leaving the building vacant for more than six months. The restaurant now runs out of a strip mall on Georgia Avenue at Progress Place.
Demolition photos by Ronald Pace/SSP. Embedded photo courtesy of Flickr user AgilityNut.
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Wow I didnt know it was that recent that it was demolished. I parked at the garage across the street from it yesterday morning and it was already gone. I thought it had been gone for some time because there was a spec of gold.
Thanks for your comments, Niko. As I say in the article:
Does anyone have a better idea when this building bit the dust?
It was there Wednesday when I walked by, but the protective fence was in place. I think it went down later that same day.
Yep, we watched it get demolished and torn down on Wednesday evening around 5pm on our way to the gym.
The made a big production out of labeling each piece and transporting the last Little Tavern to storage… why did this one get so unceremoniously demolished?
Wow, this just happened!
Driving down GA Ave to 16th St then onto 2nd Ave, when I passed it I was thinking ‘when did this happen’ as Ive not been 2 dwntwn Silver Sprung (lol) since Dec. But comcast still hasnt fixed my DSL so Im sitting in BN doing my online stuff.
Back 2 topic: I thought the owners __(I 4got their names) were fighting being demolished? There is still a lil tavern/golden house @ 8100 wisc ave in bethesda, but all remnants of it being a lil taven have been covered by current owners Golden House.
PS: When i was on 2nd street I saw a new bldg being built behind McDonalds on what used 2 be a parking lot. When did that happen?
Oops. I mean 2nd Avenue & Colesville rd on the hill ( Fidler Lane) behind the McDonalds & in front of those townhouses.
Editor’s note: Construction crews have been working on that project since the beginning of the year. It’s called the Portico, though I’m not sure if they’ll be condos or rentals. — JD (Jul 19, 2008)
“The[y] made a big production out of labeling each piece and transporting the last Little Tavern to storage… why did this one get so unceremoniously demolished?”
Silver Spring’s Little Tavern #1, located at 8230 Georgia Avenue (@ Ripley Street), was constructed in 1935 and was one of the earliest surviving LTs in the Washington metro area. When then-owner Pyramid Atlantic failed to auction off the structure in 2003 on eBay (claiming it’s retention was only “Phase One” of their master plan…”Phase Two” called for the construction of a $4.75 million art center on the site to be dubbed SEMAT), LT’s high quality enameled panels and other architectural pieces were salvaged by the National Capital Trolley Museum for reconstruction at their facility in Colesville, MD (which also has failed to happen).
Pyramid Atlantic opposed listing that year of Little Tavern on Montgomery County’s Locational Atlas and Index of Historic Sites, which paved the way for demolition of the building.
Five years later Little Tavern’s footprint is marked by a gravel lot and the rest of the site is surface parking.
I thought about Little Tavern when I attended the Crafty Bastards event held at Pyramid Atlantic and thought how the presence of that wonderful building, with its neon signs restored, would have added to the overall quirkiness of the event.
In contrast the former LT at Wayne and Fenton was constructed in 1974 utilizing exterior materials of a far lower quality. While historic designation of this building would have been impossible, the Silver Spring Historical Society did suggest that it be incorporated into the new Silver Spring Library to be used as a children’s reading nook.
To read the story about the failed 1935 Little Tavern preservation attempt, please go to http://silverspringhistory.homestead.com/LittleTavern.html .
Thank you.
Thanks for answering our bat signal, Jerry!