Underground Party Lair Shut Down

Half a century ago, it was part of the nation’s last line of defense, one of a dozen Nike missile batteries protecting Washington, D.C. against Soviet invasion.

The Cold War thawed, the silo off Snouffer School Road was abandoned, and the land around it fell into decades of disuse before being caught up the last two years in an aborted attempt to deal the property to county government.

At some point along the way, the silo quietly turned into a subterranean hangout, crumpled cups and beer cans strewn across the floor, graffiti covering its cold concrete walls, a pair of makeshift campfires—one above ground, one below—with logs burnt to cinder.

That party is now over.

Montgomery County police discovered the site last week and alerted the owner, who welded the hatches shut on Friday while housing enforcement officials looked on.

Because of the site’s isolation—surrounded by woodlands on three sides and the vacant 130-acre Webb Tract on the other—police believe it was used by teens from nearby neighborhoods in East Village.

At first glance, officers who inspected the site did not believe the graffiti to be gang-related. But the abandoned silo was a public nuisance and hazard that needed to be shut down, said Diane Tillery, community services officer for the 6th District station, which covers Montgomery Village and Gaithersburg.

It was "the very first time" that M & D Real Estate, LLC, which owns the 13-acre site, had heard of the silo being used as a hangout, said Michael Miller, a principal with the company.

The silo will eventually be gutted and backfilled to make way for the site to be developed.

Last year, a plan fell through to "swap" the land with county government, which had just bought the adjacent in order to build four major county operations there, including the police and fire/rescue training academy.

M & D would have given the parcel to the county in exchange for a smaller but better-situated plot a quarter-mile down Snouffer School Road, where M & D was in negotiations for building a Lowe’s home improvement store.

County Executive Isiah Leggett balked on the deal after surrounding communities failed to reach a consensus.

M & D is moving forward with plans for a warehouse on the 13.7-acre site, whether they develop it themselves, sell the land or lease it out. They are moving to subdivide the property and clear the way for a 225,000 square-foot operation, said Bill W. Quay, Jr., a senior vice president for McShea & Company, Inc., the property’s real estate agent. He expects it will be a year to put approvals and designs in place.

"We have a couple very interested parties right now," Quay said.

M & D does not yet have a timeline for actual construction.

"The economy has kind of got to tell us when we can develop it," Miller said.