On Colesville Road in Silver Spring, the American Film Institute Silver Theatre and Cultural Center stands as a restored 1938 Art Moderne theater designed by John Eberson and integrated into a three-theater complex devoted to advancing and preserving the art of the moving image. Eberson, a Romanian-born architect trained in Vienna and known as the "Dean of American Theater Architects," designed more than 40 movie theaters and gave the Silver Theatre and its companion Silver Spring Shopping Center a distinctive blend of Art Deco, Art Moderne, and atmospheric theater design, including ocean liner motifs such as a vertical mast or prow, smokestack-like brickwork, portholes, wave-patterned interiors, and hand-painted murals of tropical birds and aquatic plants. Built with the shopping center beginning in March 1938 and completed in six months, the theater became an integral part of the region's cultural life, but by the 1970s downtown Silver Spring had declined as newer shopping areas developed farther from metropolitan Washington. In 1984, the Art Deco Society of Washington, supported by neighborhood and civic organizations, began a campaign to preserve the theater and shopping center. After nearly 50 years of operation, the original theater closed in 1985, but community efforts led to its inclusion in Montgomery County's historic preservation master plan, county acquisition of the property in 1996, selection of the American Film Institute in 1998 to operate the theater and help design the new facility, and an agreement with the Maryland Historical Trust to protect the facade and interior. Reopened in April 2003 by actor and director Cling Eastwood, the restored theater resumed its place in Silver Spring with new releases, classic films, festivals, documentaries, international cinema, and live presentations.
