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Wildwood/Mt Zion Baptist Church and Cemetery

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Wildwood Baptist Church, formerly known as Mt Zion Baptist Church, is a church in Bethesda, MD which has held services since 1862. The sanctuary was constructed in 1910 replacing an earlier sanctuary, with a remodel and northern addition in 1950, as well as a new northern educational wing built in 1962 for its one-hundredth anniversary. The adjacent cemetery is the burial place for several influential Montgomery County families including the Magruders, Rileys, Veirs (of which Veirs Mill is named), and Darcys, who set up Darcys Store, the original general store in downtown Bethesda. The church was renamed Wildwood Baptist Church in 1971 after commonly being called the Church in the Wildwood. The surrounding Wildwood shopping center and Wildwood Manor is named after the church.

Images

Exterior of the 1910 sanctuary

Road, Architecture, Road surface, Property

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The first gathering at the current site happened in 1862, building a frame meeting house on land that had been gifted by John G. Bohrer, on a knoll or hill colloquially called "Spiders Hill". In 1880, the church was officially designated Mt Zion Baptist Church by deacons of the Rockville Baptist Church, although it had informally used that name since 1862. The cemetery was first utilized in 1864 and has been in continuous use since then, with more than 300 graves. In 1962, the church had over 600 members. A parsonage for the church was built in 1932 and enlarged in 1960. The church is the sole survivor of a community named Rabbitts P.O. or Beane, which had a post office and general store.

Sources

Clare Lise Kelly, Places from the Past: The Tradition of Gardez Bien in Montgomery County, Maryland (Silver Spring, Md.: Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, 2001), 253, accessed December 29, 2020, https://montgomeryplanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Places-from-the-Past-web_with_cover.pdf.

Memorandum, "Maryland Historical Trust State Historic Trusts Form, M: 30-18," February 1979, accessed December 31, 2020, https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/Montgomery/M;%2030-18.pdf.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://www.faithstreet.com/church/wildwood-baptist-church-bethesda-md

Additional Information