Somerled on Silk Alley is another ‘grant house’ dating back to the beginning of the 18th century. Joiner Stephen Wright was granted the land in 1702 and erected Somerled within 18 months in order to keep the lot. The house stayed in the Wright family for four generations before Esther Wright married Henry Roberts in 1823. Roberts added rooms to the north and west side of the house in 1825, reflected in the building’s tax assessment increasing from £100 to £300 that year. He died in 1828 but Esther lived another 38 years, dying in 1866 at the age of 80.

Esther’s daughter Susan, the widow of Claude Thompson McCallan, inherited the house but died four years later in 1870. She left it to her son, Samuel Crofts McCallan, who passed it on to his son, Ernest Albert McCallan, who also owned nearby Seven Gables.

McCallan gave the house to his sister Essie, who passed it to her daughter Nea Smith in 1950. Smith’s cousin Dianne Mary Green inherited after Nea Smith died in 1992. Thus, until it was sold in 2007, Somerled had the rare distinction of never having been sold since it was built in 1703. The old home had been passed down with little modification through the same family for 11 generations across three centuries.

Somerled offers an excellent example of the hall and parlour floor plan of the early 18th century. Like most early St George’s houses it has a gable roof. Two large chimneys buttress the ends of the house to add structural support. The side staircase leading to the upper floor is original, but the attractive lattice porch attached to the entrance to the lower floor is a more recent addition.

A small, detached outbuilding at the northern edge of the property dates to the early 19th century and was probably where the four enslaved members of Henry Roberts’ household lived.