O'Brien House - 1901
This two-story,
four-by-four, clapboard, frame house is one of
the earliest houses in the Town of Somerset, and
one of the least changed. Originally it consisted
of a parlor directly
inside the front door, a dining room, and a kitchen;
and on the second floor two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Today, a rear extension and other additions give
much more living space, but the original heart-pine
floors remain in the older part of the house along
with original doors and hardware and an unusual
black slate fire surround in the parlor.
The house was built on speculation for Miles Fuller, a scientist with the Department of Agriculture, and one of the Town's founders. The builders were Canadian father and son, Richard and William A. Ough (pronounced Oh). Fuller didn't live here; he lived at 4723 Dorset Avenue in a grander Queen Anne style house, built in 1894 and demolished in the 1960s.
We know the house was built in 1901. When the 1950 rear addition was constructed, builders discovered that a workman had written his name, and the date November 1901, on construction paper under the clapboard siding.
The house had many owners - some stayed for just a year or so, some for decades, and some did not live in the home at all. Miles Fuller's widow, Nora, sold the house to Charles W. Wise, a young bachelor in his early twenties on September 2, 1904. Mr. Wise, an auditor for the railroad company had rented it for a couple of years prior to buying it. The selling price isn't known but the identical house at 4721 sold for $2,450 less than a month later.
Mr. Wise served as the second Town Clerk and Treasurer of the Town of Somerset from May 1909 to May 1912. During this time the house became the venue for meetings of the Mayor and Town Council at least once a month. Mr. Wise was paid a salary of $2 for each meeting, for which he wrote minutes, drafted letters for the Town, and kept the accounts.
Charles Wise married Grace Lee Flook shortly after buying the house. Their daughter, Virginia Ruth, was born in the house on August 2, 1907. In the 1960's Virginia visited the house. She brought with her a photograph of the house taken in 1905, which she gave to Dorothy O'Brien, the then owner. A copy of the photograph hangs in the living room today.
Several owners bought and sold the house over the next few decades, including Benjamin Levine, a Russian chemist, and his wife, Vera, and their little girl, Beatrice, who lived here from 1918 to 1921 and an early mayor of the Town, Charles S. Moore, who purchased the house in 1924 but lived in the house next door.
From April 1943 until January 1946, J. Burke Knapp, a young economist with the Federal Reserve Board, and his English wife, Hilary, lived in the house. Burke Knapp drove his Chevy car from the house in 1944 to attend the International Monetary Conference held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, which established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Knapp was to go on to enjoy a long and distinguished career at the World Bank. He recalls purchasing the house for $8,500 and selling it for more than $12,000.
The Knapps sold the house to Joseph O'Brien, an engineer in the Marine Corp., and his wife, Dorothy. The O'Briens were to live in the house for more than three decades. A fire in the basement led them to make extensive changes to their home in 1950-51, but they were careful to insure the turn-of-the-century character of the house remained. The O'Briens raised two sons here: Joe, who became a lawyer and Dick, who became a physician.
Mrs. O'Brien contributed extensively to the collection of Somerset history. In 1956, to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Town's incorporation, she wrote the first history of the Town; then, with Joan Weiss as part of the 1976 bicentennial effort, she prepared a rich historical exhibit. A year later, in collaboration with Helen Jaszi, she updated the 1956 history, which was published by the Montgomery County Historical Society. She also audited the Town's finances and was a Council member.
The house was used to shoot two segments of an advertisement for the Pepco power company in 1997. The thirty-second long advertisement first aired on Super Bowl Sunday 1998 and was a response to the fact that customers in Maryland, DC, and Virginia were to be able to choose their power provider from July 2000.
The house was sold to its present owners in June 1994.