Historical Society of Silver SpringMembers measured the historic acorn gazebo in Acorn Urban Park (8075 Newell St) in Silver Spring, MD, and found it to be larger than the recently erected acorn statue in Oak Hill, Ohio, which was marketed as the largest acorn exhibit in the world and measures 12 feet in circumference and 15 feet in height. The building, which was constructed in 1850 by Francis Preston Blair, the founder of Silver Spring, is 14.058 feet in diameter and 17 feet high, surpassing Oak Hill’s by more than two inches in both dimensions.
Thanks to the Silver Spring Historical Society, yesterday in Acorn Park, members of the society came to measure the historic acorn gazebo that has been on display here since 1850 and declare it to be the largest acorn in the world.
Jerry McCoy, the founder and president of the Silver Spring Historical Society, became intrigued after reading an article in the Columbus Navigator about the village of Oak Hill, Ohio (link), which claimed that their recently constructed acorn statue, which measured 12 feet in diameter and 15 inches in height, was the largest acorn display in the world. McCoy started to question the size of Silver Spring’s acorn statue.
He asked Jim Lieberman and Chip Py, two members of the society, for help measuring the acorn last week. On August 6, 2025, the three of them met at Silver Spring’s Acorn Park with fishing line, ladders, and tape measures. We measured the fishing line on a level surface after carefully wrapping it around the acorn’s most bulbous portion. Jerry McCoy stated. The length of the fishing line was 44 feet and 3 inches. Using a Google tool, Jim Lieberman was able to perform some basic geometry and found that the Silver Spring acorn’s diameter was 14.058 feet, which was 2.058 inches larger than the Oak Hill acorn’s. The next day, the gazebo’s height was measured at 17 feet, surpassing the Ohio acorn by 2 feet.
If Oak Hill’s acorn statue is the biggest in the world, then Silver Spring’s founder Francis Preston Blair constructed a larger one 150 years ago. I’m not sure how many other acorn statues there are in the globe, McCoy added.
Next to the original spring where Silver Spring’s founder, Francis Preston Blair, who was then Postmaster General, discovered his misbehaving horse drinking, the Silver Spring acorn was constructed in 1850. Because there was so much mica, the spring water glistened. Blair named the region Silver Spring after deciding to build his country residence there after surveying the area. The little park is now tucked away in a neighborhood that is now an urban area.
