The O'Dea House, is a historic home located in Berwyn Heights,

Prince George's County ) , demonym = Prince Georgian , ZIP codes = 20607–20774 , area codes = 240, 301 , founded date = April 23 , founded year = 1696 , named for = Prince George of Denmark , leader_title = Executive , leader_name = Angela D. Alsobrook ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

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. The house was built in 1888 from a pattern book design and is a -story frame Queen Anne-style dwelling. Most notable of its features is the three-story octagonal tower and varied ornamental surface coverings. The O'Dea House is significant for its association with the development of Berwyn Heights, originally Charlton Heights, an early

streetcar suburb A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...

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and for its architectural character. Beginning in the 1870s, the area northeast of Washington was the scene of active and continuous development as the population of the city increased and railroad suburbs such as Berwyn Heights gradually grew and expanded around it. The O'Dea House is one of the houses erected by the Charlton Heights Improvement Company to spur development of its new community. In typical fashion, these company-built houses were often mail order or pattern book houses. The pattern for the O'Dea House is from an 1888 published design by Robert W. Shoppell. The O'Dea House was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1987. It was sold in 1939 to Lawrence and Alice O'Dea, and bears their name.Engineering record
''Historic American Buildings Survey''. Retrieved: 2010-10-04.

References

External links

*, including photo in 1986, at Maryland Historical Trust website
O'Dea House, 5804 Ruatan Street, Berwyn Heights, Prince George's, MD
at the

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HABS) {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Berwyn Heights, Maryland Houses in Prince George's County, Maryland Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Queen Anne architecture in Maryland Houses completed in 1888 Historic American Buildings Survey in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Prince George's County, Maryland