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Bethesda Meetinghouse
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Front elevation, 2008
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| Location: | 9400 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, Maryland |
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| Built: | 1850 |
| Architectural style: | Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Other |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 77000699[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | April 18, 1977 |
The Bethesda Meeting House (BMH) is a historic church complex in Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA. It is situated on Maryland Route 355 (known as Rockville Pike at this point) just inside the Washington Beltway.
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The BMH property includes the 1850 meeting house itself, the mid-late 19th century parsonage to the south, and the associated cemetery. The church is a large, wood-frame structure built in the Greek Revival "temple" form, although it features Gothic-style windows throughout. To the south of the church is a two-story frame Victorian parsonage built on a cruciform plan, with some Queen Anne-style embellishments.[2]
The church was constructed on the foundation of an 1820 Presbyterian church which burned down in 1849. It served as the Bethesda Presbyterian Church from 1850 until 1925 when the congregation decided to erect a new church on Wilson Lane, farther south in Bethesda. When the church moved to its new location in 1925, the trustees sold the building and 7 acres (2.8 ha) of land to Mrs. May Fitch Kelley. The Presbyterian congregation, however, retained ownership of the cemetery.
Mrs. Kelly lived in the church building for many years. In 1945, the property was sold to a Catholic missionary group known as the "White Fathers of Africa". In the 1950s, the property was transferred again, this time to the trustees of the Temple Hill Baptist Church[2], and it is still open for Sunday services to all who wish to worship there.
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