Henry Randall House (4506 Rhode Island Avenue)

The first residents of this house, Henry Randall and his family, were the first to settle on the land that would come to be known as Randalltown. The Henry Randall House is the first and oldest site of entrepreneurship in North Brentwood. Built on a lot purchased from Capt. Bartlett in 1891, the home was originally built on this site in 1892 and housed several entrepreneurial enterprises in the community over a period of approximately ninety-five years. Early property owners that formed the beginning of Randalltown along Henry included his son Peter, his married daughter Edith Mason, his son Augustus, and the father of Peter Randall's wife, Otho Johnson. By 1910, Mr. Randall had a successful coal and ice supply company running out of the property.

Then, during the 1930s, Mahalath F. Wigginton-Brown purchased the property from the Randall family. A successful realtor and businesswoman, Ms. Wigginton-Brown owned various properties across the town including a general store she operated at the corner of 40th Avenue and Wallace Street. By the 1940s, the town doctor, Dr. William W. Spiller (“The Killer”) lived in and welcomed patients into the house. His practice continued through the 1970s until his death.

Ownership of the house passed from one resident to another through the 1980s and 1990s. In 1993, the house burned down in an accidental fire. The site, owned by the Town of North Brentwood, sat vacant until archaeological excavations took place in June of 2022 to further explore the town’s history. Future plans for the site include the construction of Entrepreneur Park to honor the rich history of African American entrepreneurship in North Brentwood, from the first entrepreneur, Mr. Randall, to those who followed including Mamie Dimes, Martha Holmes, Marie Alice Walls, and all known entrepreneurs up to the current day.

Sources

Photograph of the Henry and Peter Randall Houses from Historical Survey: North Brentwood, Maryland, p. 10 (1991).