The Somerset Historic District
The Charles Moore House - 1904
This 2-1/2 story frame foursquare with hipped roof, clapboard siding, central doorway, and strong undereave dentilation, features Doric columns on the porch. It is similar in appearance to several other houses on the block. Like them, it has undergone changes and renovations through the years, including a one-story rear addition.
The house was built around 1904 probably by William or Richard Ough. By 1910 the house belonged to Mr. Charles Moore, who served as Mayor of Somerset from 1916 to 1919.
Born in Ohio
in the 1870's, Charles S. Moore loved to talk
about his youth in Oklahoma and the excitement
of the rush to claim governmental land as new
territories opened up. 
Perhaps
that is where his interest in real estate speculation
stemmed from -- he invested wisely at an early
date in what became known as the Woodmont Triangle
in Bethesda and owned the house next door in the
early 1920s for a while.
Charles Moore was an attorney in and out of government, including at the Department of Justice. He was also on the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He married Mary Roberts at around the time he first moved into Somerset, and they had one child, Margaretta, who was born in Somerset at what was then 321 Cumberland Avenue, in September 1909. Mary's mother, Sarah K. Roberts, also lived with them.
When Charles Moore died in 1964, at age 94, his daughter cleared out sixty years accumulation of papers, including the Town's early tax records, the papers of Incorporation for the Somerset Water and Power Company, and other records. These were given to the Town historian, Dorothy O'Brien (who was at that time living next door) for safekeeping. Today they are located in the Montgomery County Historical Society's archives. Margaretta sold the house to Fred Sawczyn in 1965, along with the lot to the west, upon which Mr. Sawczyn built the red brick house that stands there today. The present owners bought the house in 1967.