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The Past, Present and Future of the Bethesda Meeting House – “the church that named Bethesda.”

Despite being among the community’s most storied buildings, the Bethesda Meeting House was vacant and deteriorating when it was acquired last year by an affiliate of the Bethesda Historical Society. Constructed in 1820 (and rebuilt in 1850 after a fire) it features a rare “slave gallery,” was the town’s first Post Office, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the MoCo Master Plan for Historic Preservation. Tradition has it that Abraham Lincoln worshipped there, and it was occupied by Confederate cavalry during Jubal Early’s raid on Washington in July 1864.

BMAV, Bethesda Historical Society, and Connie Morella Library, present Bethesda historian Hank Levine giving an illustrated tour of this iconic building’s history, significance, and future. No registration necessary.