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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST (Historic Sites Survey) var.d. MSA SE16-5 Image No: se16-5-0236 Enlarge and print image (77K) |
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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, MARYLAND HISTORICAL TRUST (Historic Sites Survey) var.d. MSA SE16-5 Image No: se16-5-0236 Enlarge and print image (77K) |
| NFS Foim 10-900 (Rev. 11-90) OMB No. 10024-001S United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 10 the partners purchased the "Friendship" farm, and with plans for its development and subdivision, designated the former farmland as "Somerset Heights." The Department of Agriculture Colony Meanwhile, a group of five, high-level Department of Agriculture scientists and friends had banded together in an unconventional and somewhaj Utopian manner in search of a tract of land on which to establish a residential "colony." The five scientists, Harvey W. Wiley, Charles A. Crampton, Miles Fuller, Daniel Salmon, and Horace Horton, were men of exceptional accomplishment and ability. The leader of the group, Dr. Wiley, was Chief of what became the Bureau of Chemistry in the Department of Agriculture. Dr. Charles Crampton was Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry under Dr. Wiley. Daniel Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry in the Department of Agriculture, gained an international reputation for his steps leading to the eradication of pleuropneumonia and Texas tick fever, both major killers of cattle. Miles Fuller, a lawyer who handled the business details of the partnership, was Chief Clerk in the Bureau of Animal Industry, and later operated a business school in D.C.6 Horace Horton, about whom little is known, sold his interests in the venture early on to Dr. E.A. de Sweinitz, Chief of the Biochemistry Division in the Bureau of Animal Industry. Of these five men, three of them—Harvey Wiley, Charles Crampton and Daniel Salmon—became leaders in their field, securing both national and international names in science. A committee representing the five men was charged with finding an appropriate site for purchase according to a set of criteria established by the group. Somerset Heights caught the attention of the committee, and in August of 1890, the group of five purchased a fifty-acre tract of Somerset Heights from owners Beall and Walsh for $19,000.7 Prior to the official completion of their purchase of the land, The Evening Star reported the committee's find: After considering various propositions made by land owners the committee representing the scientific men of the Department of Agriculture, who have in view the establishment of a suburban colony, have selected a tract of rolling land on the Tenleytown road, adjoining the property of Gen. Drum, just across the District line in Montgomery county, owned by John E. Beall, esq. and Dr. Ralph Walsh. The tract is a part of the so-called "Somerset Heights," and consists of fifty acres sloping to the south. The Company will begin operations by providing the property with a good system of sewage, a bountiful supply of water and electric light from the Georgetown and Tenleytown Electric Railroad Company. During the coming summer and autumn active steps will be taken in preparing the property for building. Mr. Beall, through whom the property was purchased, will build a broad avenue from the pike along the border of the property, plant shade trees and lay a sidewalk The initiatory steps in house building will be taken by Dr. D.E. Salmon, Dr. H.W. Wiley. Dr. C.A. Crampton, Mr. H.E.L. Horton, Mr. Miles Fuller and others. The lots are to contain not less 6 Miles Fuller also later bought out the other partners' share of the real estate venture. 7 Montgomery County Land Records JA19:489^191. |