In August 1889 the Mayor and City Council agreed to allow John Faust & Son to construct a shoe factory at 701 Fountain Street that would be exempt from city taxes for 50 years. It was renamed Faust Schocke Shoe Company, as shown on the 1890 and 1894 Sanborn Insurance Maps, but following some worker strikes in 1894 due to reductions in pay and other issues, it went out of business quickly. This house, along with 212 South Stokes Street, 618 Bourbon Street, and 200 South Stokes Street were fairly imposing Queen Anne Style residences said to have been built for superintendents of the shoe factory. Still standing today in the 700 block of Fountain Street, are also the original factory office and the brick double houses that were built for the workers.

The two lots of land on which this house was built were owned by John Thompson Frieze, a town commissioner and former mayor, who sold them in 1889 to Robert K. Vanneman (1853-1912). Vanneman was prominent in the city as first cashier of the First National Bank of Havre de Grace and also helped to organize the bank in 1883. It is believed that Vanneman built this house around 1890, as he did others, and in 1901 he sold it to William H. Andrews. Seven years later, it was sold by Harriet Andrews of Connecticut, to whom William had devised it, to Hattie M. Segar. Her husband, Dr. John Clark Segar (1870-1931), was a local dentist.

Paul Truman Segar enlisted in the National Guard April 1917 and was made Private First Class in the US Army July 1917. Paul lived at this address when he enlisted. He was promoted to Sergeant First Class May 1919. Sgt. Segar served in Company D 1st Maryland Infantry and Company D 115th Infantry. He was hospitalized on July 9, 1918, and was sent to Hoboken, New Jersey Casual Company. He was overseas from July 1918 to July 1919, when he was discharged. Sgt. Segar is listed on the Tydings Park Roll of Honor for his service.

The Segars lived here through the death of Dr. Segar in 1931 and in 1939 his widow, Hattie, sold the property to W. John and Edna C. Whyte. The Whytes lived here until 1953 when they sold it to W. Milford Whyte and Aderina W. Foy, their son and daughter. For the next several years the house transferred between members of the Whyte and Foy families until in 1980, owned again by the widowed Edna Whyte, she devised it to Aderina Foy and W. Milford Whyte. They, however, sold it the same year to Clarence “Ray” Ashford and his wife Alice Ashford; Ray was a teacher at Havre de Grace High School.

In 1992 the Ashfords sold this property to Kathleen “Kate” Holmberg. Soon after she bought it, Kate did an extensive renovation and she opened the house to the 1995 Annual Candlelight Tour. Double doors with oval glass inserts opened to a spacious foyer with stained glass panels and original hardwood floors. There was a fireplace in the living room and another in the large dining room, overhung by a mirror. Pocket doors were preserved, reminiscent of the period in which the house was built. She added the sun room, which was enhanced by a skylight—it looked out on a deck and landscaped yard. A pastel motif in the tiled floor of the second-floor bathroom was one of the few color accents in an otherwise pristinely white décor.

In 2015 Kate Holmberg sold this property to Charles and Charlene Johnson of Louisiana and it is assumed that this was an investment property for them. They sold this home in 2020 to Laura and Mark Hutton who are making their home here while Laura is teaching at Harford Community College.

County Records
Built 1940. 1934 sq ft, 2 stories with basement, 1.5 baths, 8400 sq ft lot.