To spot the Beall-Dawson House, look for a big, stately brick home with green shutters, tall windows, and chimneys on both sides-it’s right ahead of you, sitting proudly atop a low slope.
Imagine yourself standing here in 1815, as Upton Beall, a man from a prominent Georgetown family, scans the horizon, eager to show off his brand-new home. Beall wanted something that said, “I’m important, and boy, do I love bricks!”-so he picked this elegant, Federal-style house made with fancy Flemish bond brick on the front. It was quite the talk of Rockville, which was then a quiet crossroads town, hardly more than farms and a few carriages.
The Beall-Dawson House was more than just a home; it was a symbol. As clerk of the court, Upton Beall needed a place grand enough for visitors and neighbors to gasp with envy. Even from this spot, you can almost see guests in bonnets and suits arriving for dinner, the echo of horse hooves clopping on the lane. Inside, the house boasted high ceilings and rooms designed to impress-perfect for elegant dances led by the three Beall daughters: Mathilda, Jane Elizabeth, and Margaret. The sisters, who never married, spent their whole lives here, entertaining and keeping the family legacy alive.
After the last Beall sister’s time, the house swapped owners, jumping into the hands of the Somervell-Dawson family. Imagine big family dinners and laughter as Amelia Somervell and her husband John Dawson filled these halls-with nine children running wild and only eight surviving the mayhem to adulthood. When times got tough, the Dawsons got creative: out here in the front yard, they cooked up meals for a restaurant, shuffled their feet teaching dance to neighborhood kids, and even took in boarders. But over time, the old house began to sag and fade, its grandeur slipping with every leaky roof and clattering shutter.
Fast-forward to 1946, when the Davis family rolled up their sleeves and said, “Let’s bring it back!” They patched brickwork, restored grand rooms, and even turned the original kitchen into a pretty cozy dining room-though I’m told leftovers from 1815 are still strictly off the menu.
Today, the house is so much more than a pretty façade; it’s the heart of the Montgomery County Historical Society, filled with stories of those who lived, loved, and sometimes danced just a little badly in these very rooms. Now, with its own small museum-the tiny Stonestreet doctor’s office out back, where you can almost hear the rustle of old medicine bottles -the Beall-Dawson House stands as a testament to Rockville’s resilience, its families, and a few truly wild dinner parties.
