# Outside DC: What is the giant castle-like building near 495 in Silver Spring? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2009, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-dc-what-is-the-giant-castle-like-building-near-495-in-silver-spring/505518 "2009-08-06T11:43:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-dc-what-is-the-giant-castle-like-building-near-495-in-silver-spring/505518/21 "2009-08-07T10:58:37Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > You’re probably talking about Temple Square in Salt Lake City. They do very elaborate lighting and decoration at Christmas time, but the temple grounds of all the temples are open to the public at any time. Many of them even have Visitor Centers to explain LDS beliefs to visitors. No, I meant the one in DC. They do that here too for Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-dc-what-is-the-giant-castle-like-building-near-495-in-silver-spring/505518/22 "2009-08-07T11:15:35Z")
> [@UncleFred](#): > > I don’t have a picture but there is a fairly new one in Belmont, MA. Sited on the highest land elevation in the metro Boston area, I believe. Also, only temple on the Northeast Coast, IIRC. > > As a point of interest - is it the proper term that Mormons get ‘married’? I believe I heard they don’t have a ‘marriage ceremony’ but a "sealing’ or something like that. Pardon my ingnorance…just curious. I believe you are correct that the term is sealing… my search fu sucks but I know it has been in one of the ask the mormon type threads about a year ago … ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-dc-what-is-the-giant-castle-like-building-near-495-in-silver-spring/505518/23 "2009-08-07T15:31:32Z")
Wendell Wagner: > [@](#): > > The only piece of grafitti (that I know of) with its own Wikipedia entry: [Kilroy begs to differ.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-dc-what-is-the-giant-castle-like-building-near-495-in-silver-spring/505518/24 "2009-08-07T16:49:51Z")
Yeah, but my point is that “Surrender Dorothy” was a single piece of grafitti in a single place. “Kilroy was here” is only famous because it appeared in so many places. Similarly, ‘Cool “Disco” Dan’ is only so famous because it appeared in so many places. I don’t know of any other case than “Surrender Dorothy” where a single piece of grafitti, not an entire class of grafitti, has its own Wikipedia entry. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-dc-what-is-the-giant-castle-like-building-near-495-in-silver-spring/505518/25 "2009-08-07T19:18:29Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > An Arky, I once got an honorable mention in the Style Invitational in The Washington Post where the contest was to come up with a conspiracy theory. My theory was that Cool “Disco” Dan was actually Dan Quayle. The time that Cool “Disco” Dan was most prolific in his grafitti writing fits very well with the period of the Vice-Presidency of Dan Quayle. (Cool “Disco” Dan did most of his work in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.) Unfortunately, there’s no online archive of all the winning entries of the Style Invitational, but there’s a website correlating names of the winners to the weeks they won, so I know it was either week 85 or 102. Nice…it was quite the curiosity back in the day… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/outside-dc-what-is-the-giant-castle-like-building-near-495-in-silver-spring/505518.md?page=1)