4308 46th Street, NW Washington, D. C.

The 46th Street façade was originally the back of the house.

“I was born here in this house on May 7, 1878. The house was probably about 75 years old when my father bought it in 1870. We would move out there in April and come back into town in October.

“It was a square farm of 20 acres, entered from Murdock Mill Road after passing by a cemetery, a farm with a big apple orchard, and a dairy farm.

“Facing west was the little boys’ bedroom. Three of us slept there with a trundle bed… The porch had honeysuckle vines and a shingle roof.

“Naturally it caught on fire one day when we set off firecrackers on the button hooks held outside the window…

“In front, on the west side, there was a nice flower garden with a bricked path and a row of wonderful cherry trees…A path on the north side led down to the nice spring, dividing the two fields. In the northeast corner there was an attractive pine woods with a spring on the bottom land where we kept pet bull frogs. Near the road was a creek with a swimming hole; beyond it the road led on to Murdock Mill…”

Norman Underwood
1878-1974

October 1970