72‑09‑39
Robert S. Nichols House 802 58th Avenue Historic resource; built 1908
The Robert S. Nichols House was certainly one of the community’s most handsome and substantial houses when it was built in 1908 by John F. Collins, who sold the house and two lots in 1909 to Robert S. Nichols. Nichols had come to Maryland from Texas and worked in the U.S. Pension Office in the District of Columbia. He settled with his young family in this new house on White (now 58th) Avenue and soon became active in community affairs. He headed the citizens committee which pursued and brought about the establishment of the public school in Fairmount Heights, and in 1912 served on the building committee of that school. Nichols worked toward the incorporation of Fairmount Heights and, in 1935, when the town was incorporated, he was elected as its first mayor. He served two consecutive one-year terms. The house remained in Nichols family ownership until after the death of Robert Nichols in 1960. The Robert S. Nichols House is a two-part frame dwelling: the main block is two-andone-half stories high with a hip roof, and attached to its north elevation is a two-story hip-roof wing inset from the principal east facade. The east entrance to the main block is sheltered by a porch with turned posts and jig-sawn brackets, which wraps around to shelter another entrance into the wing. There is a hip-roof dormer in the east plane of the roof.
18 FAIRMOUNT HEIGHTS African-American Historic and Cultural Resources
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