The History of Redwall

I wish we could find an old photo of the house...just something to let us know we're doing the right things for our restoration.

We have not been able to nail down the whole history of Redwall, but we're working at it. However, we do have some tidbits. If anyone out there has any information on the history of this house, please let us know!!

The property was originally part of a land grant called "Final Conclusion." We have tracked down deeds dating to the late 1800s, but haven't been able to go back much further than that.

Earlier this year, we were fortunate to meet an early resident of the property, Bertha R. Pence. Her father, Col. Joseph Randall, bought the 125-acre property in 1924. There was already an old house on the property then. Mrs. Pence told us her father built a tennis court and a pool near the house as well. He sold the property to Clara Hyatt around 1942 -- which makes the house about five years younger than we first believed.

Construction on the house was started around 1942 or 1943. At first we thought the carriage house was built after the main house, but now we know that is not true. The original owner of the house was Clara Hyatt. She was part of the family of the founder of Carter's Little Liver Pills. She was a divorcee when she built this house. A neighbor recalls that Mrs. Hyatt would ride her horse down the road with her architect some afternoons. The architect, Katherine Cutler, was the first female architect licensed in the state of Maryland. She worked as a partner in the firm of Cutler & Cutler, along with her father, Howard Cutler.

According to one neighboring farmer, construction laborers were a little mystified at the design of the house. One worker stopped by the farmer's house on his way home and shook his head, saying, "They've got me building a silo on that house!"

The house was originally painted white; there are still traces of the original paint in sheltered areas such as the covered walkway to the carriage house. It must have stood out like a beacon in the middle of the farmlands! As much as we want to restore the house to its original glory, we like the red brick and have no plans to repaint it.

According to what we have been able to track down in the land records office, Clara Hyatt didn't live in the house very long. Records show that she may have remarried to a man named Tyler Kent before the house was sold . The house was actually sold by him under a Power of Attorney. We don't know if she died or was incapacitated; the mystery deepens!

The next owner was an attorney named A. Harding Paul. (His first name was probably Albert, as correspondence on file addressed him as "Bert") He was a partner in the firm Paul & Yeatman. He lived here with his wife, Filimora (nee Wilgus). She was evidently "frail and infirm" and had a good many servants to help her around the house. She was responsible for much of the landscaping that was done; she added the fish pond, planted hybrid tea roses along the fence line, and planted hybrid honeysuckle among the front bushes. They called the property "Filbert Farm" -- apparently a fusion of their first names (Filimora and Albert).

At the time of his death, Paul also owned a small house at 18500 Kinghill Road in Germantown. This is now an empty lot.

When Filimora Paul died on December 12,1962, Mr. Paul moved from the main house to the carriage house. He sold the property to Harry Leet in the early 1970s, and then leased the property back from Leet so he could still live there. Paul died on June 8, 1975, leaving an estate valued at almost $400,000, to be split between his brother and sister, with some minor bequests to others.. He died childless, and after his death the house was occupied by a series of renters. The next owner was the Wear family, from whom we purchased the house in May 1997.