Beall Dawson House/Museum

Upton Beall was one of the first clerks of the Montgomery County Court and a part of the prominent Beall family, who descended from Alexander Beall. The family played a large part in county history. Upton Beall became clerk of Montgomery County clerk in 1795 when his father Brooke Beall could no longer serve (he lived in DC, which had recently been separated from Montgomery County).

When Upton Beall constructed the Beall-Dawson house in 1815, it was the largest brick structure in Rockville and was influenced by other similar houses in Georgetown. According to family lore, Marquis de Lafayette, the famous French general, stayed at the Beall-Dawson house when passing through in December 1824.

With the death of Upton Beall in 1827, the house was left to his wife and his three daughters. All four lived there until their deaths, his wife in 1849, and his daughters Jane, Matilda, and Margaret in 1863, 1870, and 1901, respectively. When Matilda Beall died in 1870, Margaret invited her first cousin, Amelia Somervell to live with her. When Amelia married John L. Dawson, a local lawyer, the house became the Beall-Dawson house.

Although the Dawsons had many children, most moved away, and the heirs to the Beall-Dawson house did not have an interest in owning the house, so in 1946, it was sold to Edwin L Davis. When Mr Davis died, the house ended up in the possession of the Montgomery County Historical Society, who continue to maintain and preserve the house. In the house, there are two rooms dedicated to rotating exhibits.

Poole, Martha Sprigg. The Beall-Dawson House in Rockville, MD. The Montgomery County Story, vol. 9, no. 2. Published February 1996, https://mchdr.montgomeryhistory.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.12366/62/mcs_v009_n2_1966_poole.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y