Somerset is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located near the border with Washington, D.C.

[4] The land that would become Somerset was originally a part of the 3,124-acre Friendship Tract patented by Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore, to Col. Thomas Addison and James Stoddart in 1711.

In 1890, John Beall and Ralph Walsh sold 50 acres to five scientists who worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Charles A. Crampton, Harvey W. Wiley, Daniel E. Salmon, Miles Fuller, and Horace Horton, who had established the Somerset Heights Colony Company.

[5] Their plans were described in the Washington Evening Post's May 17, 1890, issue: "...the scientific men of the Dept.

of Agriculture...selected a tract of 50 acres of rolling land adjoining the property of General Drum just across the DC line in Mont.

The first home was built in 1893 on Dorset Avenue and occupied by Crampton, assistant chief of the Bureau of Chemistry.

Marketed as an area of "tranquility and refinement", the original Town was plagued by inadequate water drainage, a makeshift sewage system, and the absence of local fire protection and schools.

These problems prompted the local citizens to petition the State of Maryland for incorporation into a township so that taxes could be levied to provide these basic services.

Crampton was succeeded as mayor by Jesse Swigart, elected in 1910; Warren W. Biggs in 1912, and Charles S. Moore in 1916.

[9] The Bergdoll family based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania owned a large tract of land directly south of Somerset and in 1943 sought to build apartments by seeking a zoning change.

After the family was denied, the Bergdoll Estate held three auctions in 1946 and 1947 for the land which became part of Somerset.

[10] The lots of the former Bergdoll tract were placed under racial covenants barring their sale to non-white people.

William F. Betts was elected mayor in 1954, followed by Frederick W. Turnbull in 1956, and Warren jay Vinton in 1958.

[12] In 1988, Town residents voted in a referendum to de-annex a parcel of land containing three large apartment buildings under construction, to avoid having the Town Council and services shift from representing the single-family homeowners to becoming representative of a condo community.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Town has a total area of 0.28 square miles (0.73 km2), all land.