Hearth of the stalwart Farquhar clan, The Cedars was built by Allan Farquhar as a double house in 1901: cost $5,000. It occupies the site of an earlier Cedars built in 1838 by William Henry Farquhar. Allan Farquhar attended every Presidential inauguration from Lincoln's second in 1865 to Franklin Roosevelt's third in 1941, traveling to them on foot, on horseback, and by buggy, ox-cart, sleigh, railroad, auto, and bicycle. The Cedars, with its spacious rooms and porches and gracious hosts, has long been a setting of notable Christmas parties. Maintaining a Cedars tradition, Katherine Farquhar serves as a director of Montgomery Mutual Insurance Company.

William Henry Farquhar married Margaret Briggs in 1844, six years after building the original Cedars. Educated at Benjamin Hallowell's Brimstone Academy in Alexandria, William Henry was principal of the Fair Hill School, county surveyor, school commissioner, civil engineer, and long-time head of the Lyceum. A gifted writer, he was historian for the first volume of the Annals. Margaret, daughter of Isaac Briggs, was a charter member in 1857 of the Women's Mutual Improvement Association.