The Bethesda Country Club has an involved past. It began life as the Montgomery Country Club, which was part of the huge Bradley Hills development that ran a trolley line to Great Falls before World War I. The club was incorporated in Washington, D.C. and bought 150 acres, turned the old home on the site into a clubhouse and laid out an 18-hole course by 1915.

The new club’s publicity said it planned to be national rather than local in nature and admitted it might be difficult to gain admission saying, “only the ultra fashionable will be permitted to join.” It promised polo, golf and tennis and advertised that “particular attention will be paid to hunting.” But the development foundered, and in 1924 what was left of the membership bought the John Thompson estate, had Henri deSibour remodel the farmhouse, and moved out into the county. By the 1930’s it was down to fewer than 50 members but has now prospered near Laytonsville and is again called the Montgomery Country Club.

Read more at “A Short History of County Country Clubs” on the Montgomery County Historical Society website.