These comments about my grandmother’s home and her history in the neighborhood are at best uninformed and at worst slander. Please do not confuse wishing that she “rest in peace” (particularly in a comment that includes profanity) with pondering the condition of her home and any attendant activities on a very public blog. She didn’t even know what the Internet was, and it is painful to see people who know nothing about her thinking out loud.

My great-grandparents, her parents, were early residents of this neighborhood and founding members of the Ascension Episcopal Church. You may rest assured that my family could write a history of Takoma Park/Silver Spring before it was a “new urban” or retail center. We were and are not perfect by any stretch, but you have much worse things to contend with in this area.

Most importantly, please consider whether you would like your recently deceased parent or grandparent (who never harmed anyone and was a lifelong, vocal advocate for the very neighborhood you claim to support) discussed in such a manner before you shoot your fingers off in a very public blog post.

Eric – Her husband, my grandfather, built none of the houses. It is not a “drug house”. It is an old family homestead – that’s that. My great-grandfather was a contractor. Let’s just say he built a lot of the houses in the neighborhood. It doesn’t really matter which ones.

Mark – If you have “suspicions but nothing concrete”, they are best not broadcast in a public forum. I could walk by any house in the world and draw erroneous conclusions. If you have concerns about your neighborhood, legitimate concerns, call the police. Please do not mention them in concert with speculations about a woman who lived in the neighborhood, in good faith and with a following that bordered on a fan club, for nearly 90 years.

Flip – You were lucky to get a tour from someone who knew the drill. If you truly did know her when you lived there, then you would know that she sat on her porch for most of her life, entertaining questions and conversations from anyone who passed by, and you would likely be encouraging folks not to discuss her in such a manner.

You might have had this experience in your life, that houses are not just physical structures. They are reflections of family situations, good and bad, and families must make choices as life goes on. Responsible people are stewards of her memory and her home today and will be tomorrow, and any suggestion that there is not concern for the neighborhood in whatever occurs with the property is, as Anthony said, quite untrue. The roots are so deep, you have no idea.

Please consider the history of a place – truly, not just to satisfy your knowledge of who built what, when – especially a place like Silver Spring. This was a very important place to me in my childhood. I was born in Silver Spring. I could go down there right this second and fill a vase with violets. That’s what matters. People have been hurt by the words written here. As much as I enjoy the Internet, I am ever mindful that what I say can reach people for good or for ill. Please consider working for good.

I had to respond to; “Everything Must Go”, because fear of change dominates the conversation. My parents, Manuel and Ana at 820 Bonifant have lived there since 1974.

Unfortunately, my mother suffers from serious dementia. My father had to mortgaged the house to pay for my mother’s nursing home which costs $5,000 a month.

My neighbor, Anne White whose mother, Bertie died last year asked my father to join her in selling together the house. He agreed. Mrs. White knew a childhood friend Mr. Rosenbloom, our realtor and her trusted friend to sell our properties.

Fortunately, all the neighbors has given him the opportunity to sell all of our properties together. The economy is bad but together we can weather.

Chicken Little never accosted us. We are not selling for the bargain price of $13 million. Are you kidding!?! We are selling for the asking price of $1.5 million to $13 million each.(Gosh.) We are an assemblage.

We love East Silver Spring and Bonifant Street. I remember Gifford’s Ice Cream Parlor. I remember Peoples Drug Store (Chevy Chase Bank). I remember Roth Theaters next to Quimby’s. I grew up at 820 for the first 18 years of my life.

So, I want the best for our neighborhood. We are striving to lure a real estate developer to bring upscale homes. Made of full brick, no vaneers. Maybe, adding 12 to 15 houses. It will be a beautiful buffer to our downtown. Blocking the view of the monster mistake design of the Silver Spring Towers.

It will not be rezoned retail/office! Also, no Beer of Wine store is coming! Hell, ESSCA helped us fight the soup kitchen on Bonifant to relocate for many years, finally we won.

We are striving for the best! No, irresponsible developers will be buying our homes.

Support my parents and your neighbors, don’t condemn them for having a great idea of selling together.

Oh, and if you see the guy that now owns my house, could you tell him I said he needs to learn how to use a fucking paint brush and that I regret selling to him.

That’s a kind of sad one, IMO. The woman who owned the house had lived in the neighborhood since Thayer was a dirt road, according to her. She lived in that very house for a really long time too. She passed away earlier this year, and since then her son who lived with her has really let things get out of hand.

I have my suspicions that something is being dealt out of there, or was this summer, anyway, but nothing concrete. It’s sad to think of the house and neighborhood that Bertie loved may be suffering degradation at her own son’s hands.

At $1,440,000 per lot, perhaps we should create an assemblage of our own. I figure that would be at least $1M more than my house is worth as a single family home. Clearly, the real estate agent convinced these homeowners he could get them a deal too good to refuse. But I wonder how easy is it going to be to keep them all on board if the only interested developers think that the price tag is too much of a premium to pay.

Dubious Neighbor