Bethesda's historic Magruder House for lease

Magruder House, a rare 18th century home in Montgomery County, is now available for lease. The home was sold to MRS Real Estate Investment Properties, LLC in November by Capital One Bank, which had operated a branch there from 1978 until 2015. Also known by its original name, Locust Grove, the brick house and property sold for $1,000,000, according to real estate records. Magruder House is located at 7340 Westlake Terrace.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because it was the home of Samuel Wade Magruder, a towering figure in Montgomery County history, and a major in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. When Montgomery County established its first County courthouse, Magruder was one of the initial presiding judges. Patrick Magruder represented Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives. And most residents above single-digit age are probably familiar with the Magruder's grocery chain, which recently ceased opeation within Montgomery County.

William Wirt in a public
domain image from the
Library of Congress

William Wirt was a boarder at the home when he attended Tusculum Academy, the site of which is now home to the Potomac Methodist Church at 9908 South Glen Road in Potomac, according to the book Maryland, A Guide to the Old Line State. That's right at Falls Road, for those unfamiliar with the location. A native of Bladensburg, Wirt prosecuted the case against Aaron Burr for treason.

After moving to Virginia, Wirt was elected to the House of Delegates, and later became Attorney General of the United States. He was the Anti-Masonic Party candidate for U.S. President in 1832, one of several trounced by Old Hickory himself, Andrew Jackson. One irony in that, is that Wirt represented the Cherokee Nation against Jackson-backed efforts to remove them from Georgia, which concluded in the Trail of Tears forced march west.

Another interesting historical tidbit about this property, is that, after falling out of the Magruder family's ownership, it was at one point owned by the Tenleytown and Rockville Land Company, according to historian John Walton, Jr. That was a division of the trolley company that operated between Friendship Heights and Rockville from 1890 to 1935. Cyclists and joggers today know part of its old right-of-way as the Bethesda Trolley Trail.

A KNLB leasing sign
on the site near Montgomery Mall

Magruder House is being offered for lease by KNLB, according to a sign posted on the property. However, I could not find an online listing on the KNLB website at the time of this writing.