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Home / News / Lecture on Jewish Developers Working in Montgomery County and Exhibit at Davis Library Will Showcase County’s Midcentury Modern Heritage

Lecture on Jewish Developers Working in Montgomery County and Exhibit at Davis Library Will Showcase County’s Midcentury Modern Heritage

Exhibit will open at library on July 10, followed by presentation on July 13 as part of Planning Department’s Montgomery Modern initiative

SILVER SPRING, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, is partnering with the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington to host a presentation titled “Community Builders: Jewish History in Montgomery County.” Preservation planner and architectural historian Clare Lise Kelly of the Planning Department’s Historic Preservation Office will deliver the illustrated lecture on Thursday, July 13, 2017 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Davis Library (6400 Democracy Boulevard, Bethesda, MD).

The talk will focus on the role of Jewish developers and the growth of the Jewish community in Montgomery County from the 1930s through the post-World War II era. It will include a discussion of leading community builders and their projects, including Sam Eig and the Montgomery County Jewish Community Center, and Abraham Kay and Indian Spring Club Estates.

The event follows the July 10 opening of Montgomery Modern, an exhibit on the county’s mid-20th-century modern buildings and neighborhoods, at the Davis Library. The photography and texts are based on the 2015 award-winning book, Montgomery Modern: Modern Architecture in Montgomery County, Maryland, 1930-1979.

The book is written by Clare Lise Kelly and richly illustrated with images by photographer Carol Highsmith, period photographs and architectural renderings. Biographical sketches of practitioners (architects, landscape architects, developers, planners) are included, as well as an inventory of key projects, including buildings and subdivisions. Montgomery Modern is intended to raise awareness about the significance of modern architecture and the fragile nature of the built environment from the recent past.

The lecture, exhibit and book are part of the Planning Department’s award-winning Montgomery Modern initiative, which focuses on raising awareness of the modern architectural heritage of Montgomery County. Past events include bus and bike tours, and talks on leading modern architects working in the county and region.