The Somerset Historic District
4510 Cumberland Avenue - 1902
At the time it was built in 1902 this two-story clapboard house, built as a private home, had no public services. A fireplace in each of the two main downstairs rooms provided heat and probably cooking facilities. Water service was connected in 1932. Indoor plumbing, electric lights, a gas-fired hot water radiator heating system and a modern kitchen followed. Small additions were made to the front, rear and side over the years.
The lot adjoining the Town Hall is land that the Town -- under Warren Vinton, Mayor of Somerset, 1958-1969 -- purchased for recreation purposes, and for which Vinton had earned a grant under the Federal Green Space program in 1965. Now Capello Park, it was named for James J. Capello who served as Town-Clerk-Treasurer from 1940 to 1976.
In 1965, Vinton convinced Mr. and Mrs. Heck to sell the house to the Town for the sum of $25,000. In November, a council member moved that the house be razed at once, but this motion happily failed to pass, and instead the house was boarded up. A year later, eight teenagers broke in and were caught "holding a wild party, therein." They received a stern warning from the police for their actions. Consequently, the Town council began to consider more seriously how it might use the Red House -- as it was now known -- and a committee was established. It was not until 1968, however, that the Red House finally was to be put to use when Mrs. Grant, a Town resident, facilitated its reconditioning and use for teaching and training five autistic children under the auspices of the American Foundation for Autistic Children.
The building became the Town's Civic Administration office and was dedicated as the Town Hall on the Fourth of July 1982. Prior to that time the Town office was either in the home of the Clerk-Treasurer or in the home of public-spirited residents who had an extra room they weren't using. And until 1986, when a new addition built onto the rear of the Town Hall provided meeting space, Town meetings were held in the Somerset Elementary School or at the Perpetual Savings and Loan Building on Wisconsin Avenue, especially when a large crowd was anticipated or if the school auditorium was being used. In 1995, the Red House was modified to meet the handicapped accessibility laws. The Red House has become a symbol of the Town of Somerset and its picture graces our Town flag.
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