Northwood News ♦ April 2008

More Memories of ‘Downtown’ Four Corners

By Linda S. Perlman

This is about the parcel of land in Four Corners, in the middle of University Boulevard, where the 7-11, Jerry’s Sub Shop, McDonald’s, and Papa John Pizzeria are now located.

The pizza place (Papa John’s), next to what is now McDonald’s, was for many years an automobile transmission shop.  Before that, it was Fire Station 16 of the Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Department, which is now located on University Boulevard East, just past the “new” Blair High School and before the entrance to the Beltway.

McDonald’s is fairly new at that location; before that it was Roy Rogers (and, briefly, Hardee’s), before that Gino’s, and before that, Tops.

Gino’s was my first paying job, not counting babysitting (which paid, at that time, around 50¢ per hour).  Gino’s was a typical fast food restaurant, with the addition of Kentucky Fried Chicken.  A Gino’s Giant was similar to a Big Mac.  I worked as a cashier, food packager, and french fry chef beginning in spring 1972, when I was 16 years old, to fall 1972, which was my senior year at Northwood High School.  I had to wear a red and white striped uniform and white (non-sneaker) shoes.  If you had long hair, which I did, your hair either had to be tied back in a ponytail or worn up, both with no stray locks of hair — or else you had to wear a hairnet.

I was paid the grand sum of $1.50 per hour when I started (this was below the $1.60 minimum wage; I’m not sure how Gino’s got away with paying less than minimum wage) and was increased to $1.65 per hour by the time I left.  In order to get a raise, in addition to my stellar service and work record, I had to take a test on such important matters as how to assemble and clean the milk shake machine.  I quit Gino’s, not because of the low pay, hairnet requirement, ugly uniform, or white shoe requirement, but because my Saturday-Sunday daytime shift was seriously interfering with my social life during my senior year of high school and the small amount of money I was earning was not worth it.

The Stone House Inn, at right — actually located in a stone building — was at University Boulevard and Colesville Road, where the 7-11 and Jerry’s Sub Shop now stand.  It opened about 1947 and continued in business until at least 1972 or 1973.  The Stone House Inn was known for its fried chicken dinners, which I recall liking as a child, and, at least during part of its history, had live music on weekend nights.

My father also tells me that, in the days before Montgomery County had liquor by the drink, in the late 1950s to perhaps the early 1960s, the waiters at the Stone House Inn would go across to the Montgomery County Liquor Store in Four Corners (located between the bank and the library) and purchase miniatures (i.e., small liquor bottles like the ones you would get on an airplane) for you.  You then would purchase a “set up” — glass with ice, mixer, lemon twist, etc. — from the Stone House Inn and pour the miniature into the set up.

I wish I could tell you why and when the Stone House Inn closed.  As best as I have been able to discern, the Stone House Inn closed in or about 1973, after a 26-year run of business, and the building was torn down soon thereafter.

[Thanks to the silverspringsingular.blogspot.com (URL changed from printed newsletter) for some of the information for this article.]   ■