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Local Institutions
Silver Heritage Georgia Avenue
From coal and horse feed to ice cream, a variety of businesses fronting Georgia Avenue have occupied the corner across Sligo Avenue from where you stand. The earliest documented business was Wilkins & Jordan dealers in flour, feed, hay, grain, wood, coal, fertilizers, and plaster. Howard L. Wilkins and William W. Jordan established their business in 1901, "...when there was but one other house in sight."
By 1917 this business was owned by James H. Cissel president of the Silver Spring National Bank. In 1923 Cissel sold the business to Howard Griffith and Thomas W. Perry, who specialized in coal, feed, and builders' materials.
In 1939 John Nash Gifford founded the Gifford Ice Cream Company when he converted one of the former coal and feed structures at 8101 Georgia Avenue into a plant for the manufacture and sale of Ice Cream. By the time Gifford's closed its doors in 1985, it had become a Silver Spring landmark, serving untold number of ice cream treats and candies. Four years later the business re-opened under new ownership in Bethesda, Md. |