Somerset

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 U.S. Department of Agriculture: Charles A. Crampton, Harvey W. Wiley, Daniel E. Salmon, Miles Fuller, and Horace Horton, who had established the Somerset Heights Colony Company. Their plans were described in the 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 DC line in 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 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." 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 of 1906; Salmon, chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry and discoverer of salmonella, who built 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…

Geography

Somerset is located in southern Montgomery County. It is bordered to the north by Village of Drummond, to the east by Chevy Chase Village, to the south by Village of Friendship Heights and Friendship Heights, and to the west by the Kenwood neighborhood of Bethesda. The District of Columbia is less than a mile to the southeast. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land. The town is drained by the Little Falls Branch and its tributary, Willetts Branch, flowing to Dalecarlia Reservoir and the Potomac River just inside the border of the District of Columbia.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  190,438
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  164,673
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  146,045
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  143,912
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  134,323
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  129,452
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  124,751
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  120,943

Largest nearby schools

• Montgomery Blair High
  High · Silver Spring · 3,204 students · 16.7:1 ratio
• Walter Johnson High
  High · Bethesda · 2,942 students · 18.6:1 ratio
• Wheaton High
  High · Silver Spring · 2,599 students · 16.6:1 ratio
• Richard Montgomery High
  High · Rockville · 2,390 students · 17.8:1 ratio
• Bethesda-Chevy Chase High
  High · Bethesda · 2,335 students · 18:1 ratio
• Winston Churchill High
  High · Potomac · 2,234 students · 18.6:1 ratio
• Walt Whitman High
  High · Bethesda · 2,018 students · 17.4:1 ratio
• Albert Einstein High
  High · Kensington · 2,012 students · 15.4:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2025-10-27
  4 km E of Riverside, Maryland
• M 2.6 — 2021-06-25
  2 km SE of Woodlawn, Maryland
• M 3.03 — 2016-01-17
  3 km NE of Ranson, West Virginia
• M 3.6 — 2010-07-16
  5 km NNW of Barnesville, Maryland