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FDA
Update
Magazine
March/April 2003
by Suzanne White Junod, Ph.D.
In suburban Maryland, just off Wisconsin Avenue, a few blocks north of present-day Friendship Heights and south of the now sprawling campus of the NIH, is a street labeled Dorset Avenue. Turning into this tiny neighborhood, now a subdivision of Chevy Chase, your first hint that there is history here is a brick wall with a sign labeled simply "Somerset -- Incorporated 1906."
If you travel down Dorset Avenue far enough, you won't need an address to pick out the newly lovely nineteenth century Victorian farmhouse built by Harvey Wiley in 1893-94.[1] One of the first houses completed in what was originally "Somerset Heights," it was nearly destroyed by fire and subsequent neglect. In 2000, however, a couple already in the neighborhood, Joe Lipscomb, and Laura Will, purchased the long-abandoned property for $1.3 million dollars and have now completed renovations for which the description "extensive" utterly fails to do justice. The renovations were made financially feasible once the Wiley/Ringland property, already located in Montgomery County's Somerset Historic District, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The owners then donated easements for the one acre original lot surrounding the house to the government, not only providing substantial tax deductions to help pay for the renovations, but also insuring that the property will not be subdivided and sold off in the future.
The history of the property is well-documented, but little known. In August, 1890, five high level USDA scientists and friends purchased a 50 acre tract of land previously known as the Friendship Farm for $19,000. The five had earlier banded together in "an unconventional and somewhat utopian manner," in search of land on which to establish a residential colony. Harvey W. Wiley had come to Washington in 1893 and become Chief Chemist in the Bureau of Chemistry. His Assistant Chief, Charles A. Crampton, joined the venture and became the first mayor of Somerset in 1905. Miles Fuller, Chief Clerk in the Bureau of Animal Industr [2] was a founder, as was Daniel Salmon, a scientist also from the Bureau of Animal Industry, who is credited with eradicating pleuropneumonia and Texas tick fever, both major cattle killers of the day. The final investor was Horace Horton, a friend of the other four.
Their science colony ideal, however, soon took a back seat to the substantial investment opportunity they encountered. New suburbs outside of Washington D.C. established close to the new railroad and streetcar systems were able to attract long-time city residents for the first time. Inspired by the impressive large-scale development of Chevy Chase to the east, Somerset Heights was planned as a picturesque suburban community boasting of spacious lots and tree lined streets promising clean air, tranquility, as well as distinguished neighbors. A (circa) 1890 brochure put out by the Somerset Heights Land Company promoted the venture by noting that "a good class of residents [was] assured, property [was moving] in the direction of rapidly advancing values, and that the development, while close to "3 lines of electric railroad and one of steam transportation," was nonetheless "away from the river, [with] no malaria and no mosquitos. In a final patriotic boast, the brochure reminded potential buyers that "Residents are citizens of Maryland and therefore entitled to vote." As indicated in the brochure, however, the focus of their life, work, and entertainment remained Washington, not Rockville.
The homes were originally laid out in a grid pattern with large one-acre lots. The nucleus of the original fifty acres of Somerset Heights, now designated Somerset Historic District, was soon supplemented by 242 surrounding subdivision acres. From 1893 until 1915, there was a uniform setback requirement of 30 feet in all front yards in the development. The grid pattern of the earliest development gave way to curving streets following the contours of the land after World War II. Beginning in the 1950s, some of the older homes were demolished and some of the large corner lots of the older section were subdivided from the front, creating interior lots accessible only through narrow drives and alleys, greatly changing the appearance of the historic suburb, and threatening its historic integrity.
Originally, all of the homes in the Somerset subdivision were required to cost at least $3500. Harvey Wiley's home, one of the first to be completed between 1893 and 1894, was originally valued at $4,800 and built on a substantial lot, presumably as an inspiration to other owners in the neighborhood. The Wiley Papers at the Library of Congress reveal that bachelor Wiley (he did not marry until he was 67) selected his home style, however, with particular care. He apparently built the impressive 2 ½ story Queen Anne style frame farmhouse as an inducement to his aging parents, whom he hoped to move to Maryland from their farm in Indiana. Unsuccessful in convincing his parents to abandon farm life and move in with him in the Maryland suburbs, Wiley was forced to rent his new house. Wiley eventually owned 10 properties in Somerset, but as the legislative battle for the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act began to heat up, he sold all of them, selling the house in 1901 and disposing of all of his Somerset properties by 1904.
The house had a number of occupants until 1938, at which time Arthur Cuming Ringland moved his family into the house. Ringland mirrored the character, class, and careers of the original Somerset occupants --government clerks, lawyers, bankers, scientists, military officers and other white collar professionals -- and contributed his own share of public service prestige to the residence as well. Ringland had joined the U.S. Forest Service in 1900 and helped establish the nation's national park and forest system. In addition to his conservation work, he also did some refugee work during World War II. In 1945, reportedly, while at his Dorset Avenue residence, he originated the concept of a private volunteer organization that eventually became C.A.R.E.[3] Ringland became known as the "father of CARE" and was honored for his work by the United Nations in 1958. Ringland and his widow lived in the home until they moved out following a devastating fire in 1978. Requests to demolish the house and subdivide the lot were denied after the house was protected as part of the Somerset Historic District.
When the new owners were asked about what motivated them to undertake this historic venture, Joe Lipscomb is modest, saying that he and Laura were inspired after living across the street from the ramshackle old house. At the time they committed to the project, they found it hard to imagine the extensive changes that would be required to make it habitable, since the original structure had been tall, but rather small and simple, with only two bedrooms. The framework was in better shape than they had had a right to hope for, however, and had beautiful features such as a stairway constructed of American chestnut that were beautifully restored. They are now pleased to own a small piece of "relatively significant" history in Montgomery County, where, he laments, "It is difficult to find good old houses." When asked if they would do it again, he pauses, noting that renovations alone required sixteen months, he said, during which time the place had no roof and was uninhabitable, and the entire process took more than two and a half years. In the end, however, and with obvious affection, he concludes that they might indeed do it again given the opportunity. "It's a great old house, and we really like it," he says. Harvey Wiley's original investment has now become their investment in history.
Dr. Junod is a Historian with the Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, MD.
[1] Harvey Wiley, generally known as the "father" of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act to the food and drug community, retired from government service in 1912, but remained influential until his death in 1930.
[2] the term "clerk" was applied to a wide range of positions in the federal bureaucracy at that time, including technical ones. In the 1940s and 50s, 85% of government jobs were "clerks." Now government work has become so specialized that this figure is reversed, and only 15% of government jobs are "clerk" positions.
[3] CARE International is a large private international humanitarian organization that strives to be a global force and partner of choice within a worldwide movement dedicated to ending poverty. It was founded in 1945, when 22 American organizations came together to rush lifesaving "CARE Packages" to survivors of World War II.
Photo: Square two-story house with porch, somewhat overrun by plants
and trees.
Caption: Harvey Wiley and four other USDA scientists invested in Maryland
property in 1890. Wiley's house was one of the first built in the trolley car
subdivision named Somerset (now part of Chevy Chase) around 1894.
Photo: The house is falling apart and overrun with vines.
Caption: Arthur Cuming Ringland owned the house during the middle decades
of the century. A kitchen fire in 1978, however, was devastating to the historic
property, but petitions to demolish the house was denied, paving the way for
its eventual renovation in 2001.
Photo: The house has been restored.
Caption: Owners Joe Lipscomb and Laura Will bought the Wiley-Ringland
house in 2000. They paid for its restoration by donating easements on the property
in return for substantial tax deductions.
(With permission from FDLI)