Acorn Park facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Acorn Urban Park
Acorn Park
Acorn Park in 2008
Type	Urban park
Location	8060 Newell Street Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 United States
Area	0.12470618-acre (0.050-hectare)
Established	1942 (1942)
Etymology	Acorn–shaped gazebo
Owned by	Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M–NCPPC)
Administered by	Montgomery Parks
Open	Sunrise to sunset
Public transit access	Silver Spring Metro   Brunswick Line Metrobus Ride On

For Arthur D. Little's office park in Cambridge, Massachusetts, see Cambridge Discovery Park.

Acorn Park is a 0.1247-acre (0.050-hectare) urban park in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, which features an acorn-shaped gazebo and an artificial grotto. The site is historically significant as it is thought to be the location of the "mica-flecked spring" that in 1840 inspired Francis Preston Blair to name his estate "Silver Spring".

Acorn Park is located at the intersection of East-West Highway and Newell Street.

History

The gazebo in Acorn Park was constructed in 1842 by Benjamin C. King. Francis Blair's son-in-law, Samuel Phillips Lee, had the stone grotto built at the site of the spring in 1894. It originally included a statue of a Greek nymph. The park land was purchased by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1942 and was refurbished and rededicated in 1955. A small additional tract of land was acquired by M-NCPPC in 1997, to make the current 0.1247-acre (0.05 ha).

Gallery

A view of the park showing the "Grotto."

Acorn Park in 1917– the acorn-shaped gazebo is visible at left.

The commemorative plaque details the founding event.