The name Brentwood may be associated with Giles Brent and his sisters, Mary and Margaret, who in 1638 moved from St. Mary’s County to the vicinity of the town’s present location. It is also of interest that the first mayor (1802-1812) of Washington, D.C., was Robert Brent, who owned an estate known as Brentwood in the Northeast section of the city. He built a country home there in 1817 as a wedding present for his daughter.

However, direct credit for the creation of the town of Brentwood in Maryland belongs to Captain Wallace A. Bartlett. After commanding Company I of the Nineteenth Regiment during the Civil War, Captain Bartlett married, worked at several jobs, and began buying land near the District line. Two farms that were part of his property were purchased in the 1890s by the Holladay Company and the Brentwood Company. That real estate became the nucleus of the town of Brentwood.

Captain Bartlett died in 1908, but the community he helped to develop continued to grow in size and needs, and in 1922 the Town of Brentwood was incorporated. Its citizens soon became beneficiaries of a volunteer fire department, school, several churches, a post office and, later, a police department within its approximately one square mile of mostly residential usage.

The majority of homes in Brentwood were built during and after World War II; young people coming to Washington, D.C., to support the war effort found a quiet place to raise their families. There are two small service-oriented commercial areas. A focal point is Bartlett Park named for Captain Bartlett who deeded the land to the town. The park is home to the Wohlfarth Building, which serves as the Town Hall.

Several committees comprised of town residents help the mayor and council in Brentwood’s governance and in planning for the future. Isabella Callahan epitomizes that citizen involvement. She emigrated from Scotland during the 1950s and became a U. S. citizen in 1987. Since that time, she has served in many offices and was elected as the first female mayor of Brentwood in 1995.