Architecturally, the Bethesda Meeting House and parsonage represent sophisticated styles that, for one reason or another, never flourished in Montgomery County. The background of the church and its various congregations is inextricably linked with the history of Montgomery County. In fact, the name of the modern community of Bethesda takes its name from the church. The word refers to a place of healing mentioned in the Bible. In 1820 the Presbytery of Baltimore directed that a church be organized on the Rockville Pike for the Presbyterians in the southern reaches of the Cabin John congregation. The elders purchased a parcel of land and either built or converted a structure already there to serve as the Bethesda Meeting House. This building was destroyed by fire in 1849, and the new church constructed on a foundation using stones from the original church. This new building, on a hill overlooking the Rockville Pike, served as the Bethesda Presbyterian Church from 1850 until 1925 when the congregation decided to erect a new church farther south in Bethesda. When the church moved to its new location, the trustees sold the building and seven acres of land to May Fitch Kelley in 1925. The Presbyterian congregation, however, retained ownership of the cemetery and the graveyard. Twenty years later, the property was sold to a Catholic missionary group, and then to the trustees of the Temple Hill Baptist Church in the 1950s. - NRHP, 18 April 1977