Silver Spring Entrepreneurs

— Silver Heritage Georgia Avenue —

"Buy 'em by the Bag," the motto urged. For more than half a century, hamburger-hungry customers came to Maryland's first Little Tavern to do just that.


Harry F. Duncan founded Little Tavern Shops, Inc., which specialized in 5? little hamburgers, in Louisville, Ky., in 1927. The following year he moved his operation to Washington D. C. and within a decade had 22 shops. Maryland's flagship Little Tavern #1 opened in 1938 at 8230 Georgia Avenue. By 1941, Duncan moved his corporate headquarters to an Art Deco-style brick building at 1007 Ripley Street, located behind the Georgia Avenue Shop. The combination Tudor/Art Deco-style Little Taverns became iconic examples of roadside architecture in the Washington-Baltimore region.


In 1957, the Montgomery County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People conducted a survey of 18 cafes—nine in Silver Spring, nine in Bethesda. Six were cited for refusing sit-down service to African Americans, including the Little Taverns in each community (they only offered carry-out). The other four businesses were in Bethesda. Segregation in Washington, D.C. restaurants had been ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in 1953. Maryland law had no similar provision until 1962, when Montgomery County's Public Accommodations Ordinance went into effect.


In 1984, Silver Spring's Little Tavern was placed on the Locational Atlas of Historic Sites, later removed due to lack of owner approval. Closing in 1991, successive restaurants occupied the building. In 2003, an new owner of the 672-sq. ft. building tried to auction it off on E-bay, stipulating it be moved. Preservationist organizations endeavored to preserve Little Tavern through historical designation on-site or moving it. Ultimately, Little Tavern's 200+ per-fabricated exterior porcelain enamel panels and other architectural elements were preserved and given to the National Capital Trolley Museum in Colesville, Md., for potential reconstruction.

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Show me all markers in:  Silver Spring, MD  |  Montgomery County  |  20910  |  Maryland  |  United States of America

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