Silver Spring City Map Poster

About Silver Spring

The area that was to become Silver Spring was originally named "Smokey Springs" due to the smoke-like appearance of the spring water. The origin of the name is uncertain, but it possibly comes from a comment by George Washington: "This place is so hot that hell can't be much hotter." In 1795, Francis Preston Blair built his estate "Silver Spring House" at what today is Georgia Avenue and Bonifant Street in present-day downtown Silver Spring. Two years later he leased part of this land to William Davies Coppadge (1765–1841), a wealthy English merchant who operated an apothecary shop along nearby Georgetown Road. This included a parcel with Blair's spring at its head; when Coppadge died in 1841, his heirs inherited it and continued operating their apothecary on this site for decades before selling out around 1900.