ABOUT ISCA - Indian Spring Club Estates Flyer

By Tony Hausner and Mim Landry

Mim Landry supplied the flyer that is included in this newsletter . This flyer was published sometime before 1940 by the Kay Development Company. Of particular note are the features (e.g., "build-in radio aerials," and "ample closet space.") and the costs (from $5,000 to $6,500). For the mid-size ($6,000) homes, the down payment was $600 and the monthly payment was $40.82!

The developer was Kay Development Company at 307 Springview Road in Silver Spring. Neither that company nor that street seem to exist today. Mim says my former home at 9624 Flower was built in 1940. I don't know what year the other houses in the neighborhood were built, but I have to assume that a big swath of them were built around 1940.

Another reader, Sally Acharya, who works at American University, stated the "Kay Development Company" that built our neighborhood was run by the same Kays who built AU's Kay Spiritual Life Center in the 1960s (that's the round building on campus for those who know it) and, more recently, the Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre on Wisconsin Ave. The family also owned or founded the old Indian Spring Country Club. I also understand they lived for a time in one of the homes near what is now the Rec Center -- one of the larger ones, I presume!

What I know is the Indian Spring Country Club was moved when the beltway was built in the 1960s. The Country Club facilities became the YMCA, and the part north of the beltway was known as the kay tract and was a heavily wooded area. the kay tract is now the site of the Montgomery Blair High School.  - View the flyer (.pdf)