Montgomery Blair High School, one of Montgomery County’s most storied institutions, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year with a yearlong series of events. The celebration kicks off at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, September 26, in the Blair auditorium, ahead of the school’s homecoming game. VIPs and dignitaries from county, state, and national education and community organizations are expected to attend the kickoff, which is being spearheaded by the Blair Alumni Association.
According to the school’s website, the roots of Montgomery Blair date back to 1925, when Takoma-Silver Spring High School opened its doors to 86 students and five faculty members under the leadership of Principal Evalene Beebe. Just three years later, the Board of Education expanded the school to include junior high grades.
By 1935, growth in the community led to the construction of a separate high school “miles from anywhere.” The new school carried over the seal, ring, song, and colors (red and white) and was renamed in honor of Montgomery Blair, a former Silver Spring resident who served as Abraham Lincoln’s Postmaster General and famously argued the Dred Scott case before the Supreme Court.
After World War II, the suburbs boomed and Blair went from 714 students in 1946 to more than 1,300 by 1951. The campus expanded alongside the rapid growth of downtown Silver Spring, eventually becoming the largest high school in Montgomery County. Today, Blair serves nearly 3,000 students, still the county and state’s highest enrollment.
In the 1990s, with Silver Spring continuing to grow and Takoma Park annexed into Montgomery County, the student body swelled again. A new Blair campus opened in 1998 at the corner of Colesville Road and University Boulevard in the Four Corners area, where the Blazers still learn and play today.
Blair is home to some of the county’s most well-regarded academic programs, including the Communication Arts Program (CAP), the Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet Program, and the Academies at Montgomery Blair. The school’s traditions run deep, from its red-and-white Blazer mascot to its alma mater “By old Sligo’s winding waters.” In 2004, longtime teacher and class advisor Norm Stant added a new middle verse to reflect the school’s move to the Four Corners campus. The fight song, still belted out at football games, continues to rally generations of students: “Fight! Blazers, fight for old Blair High…”
From its beginnings with fewer than 100 students to its current role as one of the largest and most diverse high schools in Maryland, Montgomery Blair has stood as a cornerstone of Silver Spring for a century. With alumni leading in fields from politics to media to science, Blair’s legacy is as expansive as its student body.
