STEVE: I first came to this house in Bethesda when I was 20-years-old, in the spring of 1963.

My late wife Cokie and I, we were in college together in Boston.

We got married literally on the spot where we're sitting right now, and that was, uh, September 10th, 1966.

Then it, it all started right here in this house.

The man who really founded modern Bethesda, a man named Walter Tuckerman, saw the potential and helped lay out Bethesda.

Tuckerman tells this wonderful story when he first started building the Edgemoor neighborhood in Bethesda.

The neighbors would call him up and say, "Your horses are on our lawn.

Come get 'em."

You know?

So it was a summer place, and there were a lot of farms.

There was a small research station right on the outskirts of Bethesda.

And as World War II placed so many more demands on the government, that small research station evolved into the National Institutes of Health.

To understand the composition of Bethesda and its culture, you have to understand the nature of the government institutions that were central to drawing so many families, now, several generations ago, to this neighborhood.

They were largely medical and scientific.

These were people with graduate degrees.

These were people who were working as researchers.

And so, there was an enormous infusion of wealth into this area.

And the Metro coming out here just added to it.

The original name of Bethesda was Darcy's store.

That tells you, it was named for a store.

So there are families who have been here a number of generations, including a lot of local merchants.

CAROL: We are at the Montgomery Farm Women's Cooperative Market in beautiful downtown Bethesda.

There's still a fair number of original retailers.

I'm one of the young ones.

(laughs).

We've been selling our flowers and plants here for the last 44 years.

And it's been a delightful and hard-working journey.

GENE: My grandmother started here in 1935.

This is her stand back in the 1950s.

The market was formed by all farm women back during the Depression, to help with the farm, to keep from losing their farms.

At one time, this was the only one like it in the world.

JENNA: My grandparents brought us down here to this market, uh, 30-some years ago.

You know, I remember as a little girl, and it would be popping.

A lot of people here.

We still have our customers that live in the neighborhood.

This is like a little treasure chest in Bethesda.

CAROL: Couple years ago, the market was sold to a development company.

I think they have always intended that there be some area that still is used as market space, but it'll be a reincarnation.

It'll be a Phoenix rising out of the ashes.

The community itself I think also wants a market here.

But when great minds come together, new things and better things sometimes happen.

(doorbell) Ribbit, ribbit.