The Home of a Pioneering Rockville Mother and Daughter
In June 2021, Peerless Rockville made the careful decision to nominate the 500 Great Falls Road property for evaluation according to the City of Rockville’s established criteria, as we found this fine Colonial Revival residence, with its intact architecture, setting, and landscape, and its association with Women’s History that represents the heritage of the City merited such recognition and protection. On June 27, 2022, the Mayor & Council recognized the significance of this property and voted to apply Historic District zoning to 500 Great Falls Road.
500 Great Falls Road possesses a distinctive Colonial Revival architectural style. This property is listed in the City of Rockville’s Historic Building Catalogue as an example of Colonial Revival architecture. The symmetrical two-story Colonial Revival (1917) house features a central block, originally flanked by one-story additions.
The house is an established visual feature of the neighborhood and the City with its distinctive Colonial Revival styling, and siting on the expansive lot. The house features intact massing, footprint, and environmental setting. The deep and massive front yard in a prominent location is a familiar and distinctive visual feature at the corner of Great Falls Road and Monument Road.
In addition to the building, the original residents of this home are remarkable women who played pioneering roles in women in medicine and women’s suffrage in the early 20th century.
Dr. Clara Bliss Hinds Finley (1852-1940) was a pioneering female physician who advocated remarkable changes towards gender equality for her time and was a nationally known speaker on women’s and children’s health, recognized at the local, state and national level for her dedication to the health and welfare of society, especially the indigent.
Dr. Finley was closing out her medical career when she moved to Rockville, and it was here that she transitioned to being a public health advocate. She helped to create some of the first social service organizations and tackled the public health crisis of her time – tuberculosis. Dr. Finley worked diligently to improve the health and safety of Rockville’s most vulnerable as well as the entire community.
She played an important role for decades in establishing and operating Montgomery County’s early welfare services, private philanthropic movements, and was repeatedly recognized by the state as a major party to public health efforts, particularly efforts to control and treat tuberculosis, a central public health crisis during her time.
Dr. Finley was involved in public health efforts at two of small town Rockville’s major landmarks: The Poor Farm and The Montgomery County Fair. Dr. Finley served in leadership positions overseeing efforts to improve the quality of life for Poor Farm residents on two different organizations, both of which she co-founded, The Rockville Union Bible Class’s Mission at the Alms House and the Montgomery County Social Service League, the oldest private welfare agency in Maryland outside of Baltimore.
Among the Social Service League’s numerous public health initiatives, Dr. Finley served on a committee that repeatedly placed a trained nurse and “rest room” (aid station) at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair in Rockville to address injuries at the fair as well as continue anti-tuberculosis treatment and education efforts to reach the enormous audience of fair visitors.
The other notable individual associated with this property is Dr. Clara Hinds Finley’s only child, her daughter Bliss Finley.
Bliss Finley (1881-1970) was a prominent suffragist who participated in the fight for women’s voting rights. Finley became deeply involved in organizing suffrage gatherings and helped raise money for the cause. She participated in one notable march that took place in Washington, DC on March 3, 1913 the day before Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration and testified before Congress about a violent attack on the Maryland delegation.
Eight thousand women from all over the country marched with half a million spectators in attendance. During the 1913 march, Bliss led the section representing “wage earners.” Finley later testified before the US Congress about an incident where men attacked the Maryland women’s delegation during the parade and that police failed to protect them. This was a matter of national outrage and made it on to the pages of newspapers across the country, keeping the suffrage movement in the news for weeks, and caused the DC police superintendent to lose his job.
Bliss Finley’s national and state suffrage activities were accompanied by involvement in Montgomery County and Rockville’s social organizations. She continued to work actively for women’s suffrage, including communicating with Alice Paul, as an organizer until the passage of the amendment. Finley inherited 500 Great Falls, where she had stayed with her family throughout her adult life, upon her mother’s death in 1940. Bliss Finley is buried with her mother and stepfather in Rockville Cemetery.
Peerless Rockville is thrilled that this important property has been recognized and preserved by the City of Rockville. Women’s suffrage is a topic in history in which many participants and advocates are just now being discovered, recognized, and celebrated.
