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Downtown Bethesda Walking Tour
Item 4 of 9
The Leslie Beall House in Bethesda was constructed in 1925, adjacent to a grocery store run by Leslie Beall. The grocery store was the first in Bethesda to have delivery and fresh meat. The house is marked by its central portico with columns, one-story wings with roof balustrades, and roofing with terra cotta tiles. Since 1986, the building and its adjacent gazebo have been used for commercial purposes.

Window, Property, Neighbourhood, House

Branch, Residential area, Window, Neighbourhood

When Leslie Beall died in 1965, the house was passed on to his daughter, Virginia Withers, who maintained an antique shop in the building. As the downtown area of Bethesda began substantial development, many neighbors sold off their land to developers, however, Withers remained adamant about keeping her land which stretches from the intersection of Old Georgetown Road and Arlington Rd to Moorland lane. In 1986, the Chevy Chase Saving and Loan Inc made a deal with Withers and the county planning board in which the house was kept and public green space was erected in exchange for denser development allowed in the new Chevy Chase Garden Plaza, which still remains today. In addition, to the North of the house, a gazebo was constructed that is now used to sell pizza. Currently, the house is an art studio.

Zita Arocha, "Novel Deal Saves House," The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.), November 18, 1986, accessed December 29, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1986/11/18/novel-deal-saves-house/a16a3736-bc0f-4075-ae3a-e519d84ccb09/.

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), 287, accessed December 29, 2020, https://montgomeryplanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Places-from-the-Past-web_with_cover.pdf.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Bethesda Briefing Book, 2014

hmbd.org