North Four Corners News ♦ June 2024

Rachel Carson Museum Planned Along Northwest Branch

By Jacquie Bokow

Burnt Mills East Special Park, on the east side of Colesville Road alongside the Northwest Branch, has both a large parking lot and the Robert B. Morse Water Filtration Plant, a WSSC facility which has been unused for six decades.  I spoke with Darren Flusche, Acting Deputy Director for Administration for Montgomery Parks (which owns the building), who told me they were approached more than a year ago by Woodmoor resident Rebecca Henson, a Maryland Master Naturalist, with an idea to use the building as an interpretive center/museum inspired by the life and works of Rachel Carson.

The space would be called Springsong Museum, where visitors can learn about Carson’s ecological philosophy and deep sense of wonder about the natural world.  The space also would “share the history of the land at Burnt Mills, including that of its mills and the significance of its filtration ingenuity, the nearby African American communities, and the Nacotchtank/Anacostan history and current Piscataway perspectives, many elements of which predate and align with Carson’s focus on interconnection in nature,” writes Henson on the project’s website, springsongmuseum.org.

Although remediation needs to be done due to lead and asbestos in the historic building, the three stories of the building would offer space for interactive, family-focused science/nature exhibits, exhibits on Carson and other local nature heroes, and independent work and community events and meetings.  Springsong will prioritize sensory experiences and will draw from Carson’s own bridging of science, nature, literature, and art.

Henson works as an independent climate risk researcher and helps run the nature bookshop at Nature Forward’s Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase.  She serves on the board of the Neighbors of the Northwest Branch.  Rebecca has degrees in History (Vanderbilt University) and Politics, Policy, and Society, focused on comparative environmental policy (University of Bath).

The projected cost for the museum is $9 million.  The project has been awarded $1.25 million from the State of Maryland to start.

If you wish to donate to the project, checks may be made out to “Springsong Museum” and sent to 10620 S. Dunmoor Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20901.  They also accept gifts of stock, qualified charitable distributions, and donations made through donor-advised funds.  Contact Henson at info AT springsongmuseum DOT org for more information.   ■

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