The Somerset Historic District

Kennedy/Bieber House - c. 1900

Virtual House Tour

This house, standing on a half-acre plot, while outside of the official historic district, is one of the oldest structures in the Town of Somerset. The original one-story structure, built in the mid-1870s, consisted of four-rooms, which by 1910 was owned by a Mr. Kennedy and served a retail milk dairy for the Phillips farm at 4915 Dorset Avenue. The surrounding land provided space for grazing and raising poultry. There also was a barn on the property, which later became a garage. The Bieber brothers rented the two structures and added a full second floor of four rooms to the house. The Bieber brothers were builders and later moved to the residence at 4911 Dorset Avenue, (and probably also 4913 Dorset Avenue), and 4914 Cumberland Avenue, before building and settling at 4921 Cumberland Avenue. They were known as the "old Biebers." The "young Biebers" lived in a converted garage at 4917 Cumberland, and old Mr. Bieber's sisters lived for many years in the house at 4911 Dorset Avenue.

In the early 1920s the property passed to the Roberts family. Mr. Roberts was a federal employee. There were three children, Bill, Martha, and Steve. In the late 1930s the house was sold to Mr. Rufus Miles and his wife Nell. Mrs. Miles was a member of the Town Council and an officer of the Woman's Club of Somerset. In 1949 George and Helen Jaszi, who had two sons, Peter and Daniel, acquired the property. There was no dining room in the house at that time, so the Jaszi family added an extension in 1961 to house a new kitchen, and turned the original kitchen into a dining room.

Born in Budapest in 1915, George Jaszi came to the United States in 1931. He studied at the London School of Economics and at Harvard University, where he earned a doctorate in 1946. In 1945 he worked briefly as an economist with the Federal Reserve Board before joining the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 1946 he developed the concept of Gross National Product (GNP), the basic measurement of the Nation's economic activity for which he became well known. From l963 until his retirement in l986 he was Director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the U.S. Department of Commerce. He received the Gold Medal of the Commerce Department and the Career Service Award of the National Civil Service League in 1956, the Rockefeller Public Service Award in 1974 and the Distinguished Executive Rank Award in 1980. In 1984 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics He died in 1992.

Helen Jaszi was an economist for the U.S. Office of Strategic Services and later with the Social Security Board. She was active in County Council of PTAA's and was Chairman of the Somerset Library Committee, which established the school's first library in 1949. She served on the Somerset Town Council and as an officer of the Woman's Club of Somerset. She was active in researching and writing up the history of the Town of Somerset and is the author of the Town of Somerset's Diamond Jubilee history published in 1981, as well as a version of the history that resides on the Town web site.

In 1989 Helen Jaszi sold the property to the present owners who significantly expanded it while preserving its essential character, that of an old farmhouse. They also took pains to preserve the largest twin-oak in Montgomery County, which stands on the west side of the property. They received an award from Montgomery Preservation Inc. for a major renovation.

Office | Email Staff | Home

@ Legal Disclaimer