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== History == The land that would become Somerset was originally a part of the 3,124-acre Friendship Tract patented by [[Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore]], to Col. Thomas Addison and James Stoddart in 1711. By 1811, a 211-acre portion of that tract, dubbed Friendship, was owned by Richard Williams, a farmer. In 1890, John Beall and Ralph Walsh sold 50 acres to five scientists who worked at the [[United States Department of Agriculture|U.S. Department of Agriculture]]: Charles A. Crampton, [[Harvey Washington Wiley|Harvey W. Wiley]], [[Daniel Elmer Salmon|Daniel E. Salmon]], Miles Fuller, and Horace Horton, who had established the Somerset Heights Colony Company.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Simmons |first=Lesley Anne |title=Somerset: One Hundred Years a Town |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7385-4181-5 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |pages=7β40 |trans-title=}}</ref> Their plans were described in the [[The Washington Post|''Washington Evening Post'']]'s May 17, 1890, issue: "...the scientific men of the Dept. of Agriculture...selected a tract of 50 acres of rolling land adjoining the property of General Drum just across the [[Washington, D.C.|DC]] line in [[Montgomery County, Maryland|Mont. County]]. The Company will begin operations by providing the property with good system of sewerage, a bountiful supply of water and electric lights from [[Georgetown-to-Rockville streetcar service|Georgetown and Tenallytown Electric Railway Company.]] The lots are to contain not less than one acre...suburb fashioned after the very pleasant ones of [[Boston]] and other northern cities."<ref name=":1">"[https://mcatlas.org/hp2/hpdocs/M_%2035-036.pdf Maryland Historical Trust Determination of Eligibility Form]." Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission, 1990.</ref> Five early streets were arranged; they remain to this day: Dorset Avenue, Warwick Place, Surrey Street, Cumberland Avenue, and Essex Avenue, after the English counties. The first home was built in 1893 on Dorset Avenue and occupied by Crampton, assistant chief of the [[Bureau of Chemistry]]. He was followed by Wiley, chief of the Bureau of Chemistry and father of the [[Pure Food and Drug Act|Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906]]; Salmon, chief of the [[Bureau of Animal Industry]] and discoverer of [[salmonella]], who built [[Salmon-Stohlman House|Clover Crest]]; Fuller, chief clerk of the Bureau of Animal Industry and the partnership's business manager; and E. A. deSweinitz, chief of the Biochemic Division of the Bureau of Animal Industry, who took over Horton's shares.<ref name=":1" /> The house built by Wiley and later owned by [[Arthur Cuming Ringland]] would be named the [[Wiley-Ringland House]] and added to the [[National Park Service|National Park Service's]] [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2000.<ref>"[https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/213262ad-8513-495b-aad1-ee50c854dda7 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form]." United States Department of the Interior, National Park Services, 2000.</ref> The home built by Salmon, later named the [[Salmon-Stohlman House]], was added to the National Park Services' National Register of Historic Places in 2002.<ref>"[https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/884c6990-3605-4b87-985c-2990da6aad54 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form]." United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2002.</ref> By 1905, there were 35 residences. Marketed as an area of "tranquility and refinement", the original Town was plagued by inadequate water drainage, a makeshift sewage system, and the absence of local fire protection and schools. These problems prompted the local citizens to petition the [[Maryland|State of Maryland]] for incorporation into a township so that taxes could be levied to provide these basic services. The Town [[Charter]] was issued on April 5, 1906, forming the community of Somerset Heights and the surrounding areas into the Town of Somerset.<ref name=":0" /> 54 of the original residences now form the Somerset Historic District located within the Town. 31 of these residences are considered primary resources having been built prior to 1905. This Historic District has gone through four phases of development that represent the changing styles of the Town. 1893-1904 was marked by large frame [[Victorian house|Victorian]] and [[Queen Anne style architecture|Queen Anne]] houses, 1900-1915 by smaller [[bungalow]]s and [[American Craftsman|craftsmen]] houses, 1915-1940 by brick and frame [[Colonial Revival architecture|Colonial Revival]] houses, and 1940βpresent by [[Modern architecture|Modern]] and Neo-Colonial houses.<ref name=":1" /> The first Town Council was elected on May 7, 1906, and Crampton was elected as the first mayor. Crampton was succeeded as mayor by Jesse Swigart, elected in 1910; Warren W. Biggs in 1912, and Charles S. Moore in 1916.<ref name=":0" /> Moore was followed by J. William Stohlman in 1919, W. B. Horne in 1938, and Irvin M. Day in 1940.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simmons |first=Lesley Anne |title=Somerset: One Hundred Years a Town |date=2005 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year= |isbn=978-0-7385-4181-5 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |pages=41β64}}</ref> The [[Bergdoll Mansion|Bergdoll]] family based in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]] owned a large tract of land directly south of Somerset and in 1943 sought to build apartments by seeking a [[zoning]] change. After the family was denied, the Bergdoll Estate held three auctions in 1946 and 1947 for the land which became part of Somerset. This land would become unofficially known as Lower Somerset or New Somerset and the expanded street grid added Falstone Avenue, Grantham Avenue, Trent Street, Uppingham Street, and Greystone Street. The original street grid would unofficially become known as Upper Somerset or Old Somerset.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Simmons |first=Lesley Anne |title=Somerset: One Hundred Years a Town |date=2005 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-4181-5 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |pages=65β92}}</ref> The lots of the former Bergdoll tract were placed under [[Covenant (law)|racial covenants]] barring their sale to non-white people.<ref>The text of one such covenant read, "Subject to the covenant that the above described property or any building thereon shall at no time be used or occupied by any person of any race other than the white or Caucasian race; this restriction however, is not intended to include the use or occupancy by a domestic servant or casual employee while employed in and about the premises by the owner or occupant of the property." {{Cite web |date=2023 |title=Racial Restrictive Covenants and Black Homeownership |url=https://mcplanning.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0d26456118d34a14b2d27aec8d6f2b1a |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=Mapping Segregation Project {{!}} Montgomery County Planning Department |archive-date=2024-02-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208204158/https://mcplanning.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0d26456118d34a14b2d27aec8d6f2b1a |url-status=live }}</ref> Such racist restrictions were rendered unenforceable by the [[Fair Housing Act of 1968]]. William F. Betts was elected mayor in 1954, followed by Frederick W. Turnbull in 1956, and Warren jay Vinton in 1958.<ref name=":2" /> Vinton was followed by Jerald F. Goldberg in 1969, Walter J. Behr in 1975, A. Eugene Miller in 1982, and Walter J. Behr who was reelected in 1986.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simmons |first=Lesley Anne |title=Somerset: One Hundred Years a Town |date=2005 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-4181-5 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |pages=93β110}}</ref> In 1988, Town residents voted in a referendum to de-annex a parcel of land containing three large apartment buildings under construction, to avoid having the Town Council and services shift from representing the single-family homeowners to becoming representative of a [[condominium|condo]] community. Residents of the Somerset House complex would have out-numbered the single-family home dwellers by 3β1. The complex was constructed on the last large undeveloped woodlot in Somerset, and construction had been blocked by legal challenges for over two decades.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Somerset Casts Off Condo Complex; Residents Snub Extra Tax Revenue to Maintain Small-Town Feeling|date=April 2, 1988|journal=Washington Post|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1248879.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106054938/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1248879.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 6, 2012}}</ref> The current mayor of Somerset is Jeffrey Z. Slavin who was elected in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Welcome to Somerset MD |url=https://www.townofsomerset.com/government/the_mayor___town_council.php |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=www.townofsomerset.com |language=en}}</ref>
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