Bethesda
Awesome. Affluent. Accomplished.
Bethesda is one of the most affluent and highly educated communities in the United States, placing first in Forbes list of America's most educated small towns and first on CNNMoney.com's list of top-earning American towns.
Downtown Bethesda is home to more than a dozen art galleries, nearly 200 restaurants, live theatres, music and dance studios and numerous boutiques. Three of the world's leading biomedical research centers make their homes here -- the National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine and the National Naval Medical Center.
Premier Bethesda subdivisions include Edgemoor, Burning Tree, Bannockburn, Bradley Hills, Westmoreland Hills, Sumner, Mohican Hills, Battery Park and Glen Echo Heights. Bethesda takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda. Home styles throughout Bethesda include red brick Colonials, charming English cottages, authentic Tudors, Craftsman bungalows, Cape Cods and Italian villas complemented by later arrivals in the form of dramatic contemporaries and sprawling newly built New England style Colonials.
Bethesda is the home of Congressional Country Club, one of the most prestigious country clubs in the world. Bethesda is also home of the exclusive Burning Tree Club where Presidents past and present have played golf, the Bethesda Country Club, and the Bethesda Community Baseball Club, which operates the Bethesda Big Train, a summer collegiate baseball team.
Bethesda public schools are top-ranked nationally and are a significant attraction to new residents most notably of which is Walt Whitman High School. Private schools in Bethesda include Feynman School, Holton-Arms, Landon, St. Bartholomew, Little Flower School, Mater Dei School, Norwood, Our Lady of Lourdes School, Sidwell Friends Lower School, Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, The Woods Academy, The Harbor School, The French International School - Lycee Rochambeau, Washington Episcopal School and Washington Waldorf School.
