MONTGOMERY FARM WOMEN’S COOPERATIVE MARKET (BETHESDA WOMEN’S MARKET)

This building represents a beloved institution and a rare survivor of downtown Bethesda’s post-World War I development. It was built as a marketplace where the farm women of Montgomery County could sell their local produce, dairy products, and canned and baked goods. Motivated by a desire to alleviate economic woes caused by the Great Depression, the women located their market within this wealthy suburb of Washington. They were part of the Home Demonstration Clubs, sponsored by the Extension Service of the University of Maryland in cooperation with Montgomery County and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The plain, elongated, single-story frame building is distinguished by its hipped roof, central pavilion with elliptical opening and recessed entrance, and cheerful green-and-white striped metal awnings. The open-space market met with immediate success. It is among the few extant historic buildings in the ever-expanding downtown Bethesda, a late-nineteenth-century community that boomed in the post-World War I and II eras.