Bethesda Past & Future
Did you know Wisconsin Avenue is 12,000 years old? Stone Age bison crossed the Potomac River and followed the contours of the land through what we now call Bethesda. Following behind the bison: hungry human beings, stalking their dinner along the well-worn path that was destined to become our main street.
Bethesda Historical Society Invites Participation
That glimpse into Bethesda’s past is engagingly revealed by Astrid Lundberg in a video posted on the Bethesda Historical Society's website: bethesdahistoricalsociety.org. The website is a treasure trove of photos, articles, videos and more, as well as upcoming projects and events. (Image at left above is courtesy of the Bethesda Historical Society.)
Hungry humans still flock to Wisconsin Ave. and its well-trafficked tributaries. One of those streets leads to the Society’s inaugural office at 4424 Montgomery Avenue, Suite 307. There, the Society’s founding president, Wendy Kaufman, is leading efforts to catalog and organize information and artifacts from Bethesda’s beginnings all the way up to recent history.
While the website is available 24/7, the office, which opened in September, does not yet have regular hours, so an appointment is recommended before visiting.
“We’re all volunteers,” Kaufman explained, “and we’re in a transition period.” A former middle school history teacher, she launched the organization in 2019. It was getting traction with supporters when the pandemic threw a wet blanket on their in-person activities.
A Bethesda resident since 1989, Kaufman said Wisconsin Avenue is just one piece of the community’s transportation history. A trolley provided access to Bethesda from D.C. until it was finally displaced by automobiles about a century ago.
“Bethesda historically had a lot of car dealerships,” Kaufman said. “Neighboring Chevy Chase was prohibited from having commercial enterprises in their community, and those cars had to be serviced somewhere, so Bethesda became a convenient location for gas stations and car-repair businesses.”
She said parking and traffic were top local issues ever since the Greater Bethesda Chamber of Commerce was established in 1926. Old Georgetown Road owes its name to being a route farmers and merchants took down to the Georgetown waterfront where they could connect with ships and canal boats to move product. Before that, said Kaufman, Native Americans also used that road as a trail.
As the Society gears up, it’s looking for what Kaufman called the three M’s: members, memorabilia and money. Interested? Simply contact the group via its website.
Bethesda’s Future
As we pivot from the past to the future, transportation remains a central pillar of Bethesda’s ongoing growth, development and quality of life — minus any Stone Age bison.
The 2017 Approved and Adopted Bethesda Downtown Sector Plan is monitored annually by planners and an Implementation Advisory Committee to make sure it’s on track.
This year’s monitoring update describes the status of schools, parks and open space, design, construction and more, including transportation. The update noted that, as of May 2023, the Bethesda Overlay Zone has 30,247,087 square feet of existing, approved and new development.
On the transportation front, the update reports that the “design for the Cheltenham Drive Bikeway is underway and expected to be completed in 2024.”
