Built in 1842 on a 13.5-acre lot on the outskirts of Rockville, this Greek Revival-style house stood beside a stone marking the southwest corner of the original 1803 Rockville Plan, between the house and the adjacent Rockville Academy grounds. Matilda Holland, widow of Montgomery County Register of Wills Solomon Holland, purchased the land in 1839, and her daughter Anne and Anne's husband, Capt. Zachariah Johnston, USN, built the house for their five daughters and Matilda Holland. Its original form was a 1½-story side-gabled dwelling with a pedimented front portico with classical columns, an attached west wing, and a rear wing. In 1876 it was enlarged to two full stories and remodeled in a more Victorian style. A private lane led to the house and back to the stable and pasture along Falls Road. The property was owned or occupied by five generations of the Johnston-Prettyman family for almost 150 years. In 1855 the Johnstons' daughter Lydia married Elijah Barrett Prettyman, who later became Clerk of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. Many members of the family were active in county and town politics, religious and educational affairs, and the military, and various family members and others purchased land along the stable lane, which became South Van Buren Street. The Prettyman family owned the house until 1968.