Bethesda (Aramaic, בית חסדא, beth ḥesda, "House of Mercy"), originally referring to the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem (in the New Testament of the Christian Bible), may also refer to:
The Bethesda slave plantation house is located in Ellicott City, Maryland within Howard County, Maryland, United States.
The Bethesda plantation, also known as "Dower House" is a stone house built in progressively larger sections. It resides on a collection of surveyed properties totaling 1000 acres named "Long Reach", "Chews Resolution Manor", "Search Enlarged", "Search", and "Dorsey's Search" (448 Acres). The summer home for Maj Edward Dorsey was started in 1682. In 1769, the "Bethesda Old Place Farm" home was expanded on the property and run as a tobacco-producing plantation with 26 slave workers. The original house was built of granite block. In 1832, a larger stone rubble addition was added. In 1840, the house was owned by a Captain Thomas Lishear, who added a 80-ft extension to the building. The property was struck by a tornado in 1858, and stayed in the Pue family until 1859. It was later owned by George B. Sybert. By 1943, the property had been subdivided to 237 remaining acres. In 1954, the Columbia Hills Corporation developed the land leaving just 7.3 acres surrounding the house. A family and laundry room were added in 1960 by owner John M DeBoy. By 1965, the land was subdivided down to three acres.Howard Research and Development purchased most of the original Long Reach property between 1963 and 1966 for the development of Columbia. Outbuildings included a carriage house and a stone structure, the "Dower House" built in the early 1830s served as a summer kitchen.
Bethesda is a census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, just northwest of the United States capital of Washington, D.C. It 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. (In Aramaic, ܒܝܬ ܚܣܕܐ beth ḥesda means "House of Mercy" and in Hebrew, בית חסד "beit ḥesed" means "House of Kindness".) The National Institutes of Health main campus and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are in Bethesda, as are a number of corporate and government headquarters.
Bethesda is one of the most affluent and highly educated communities in the United States. In 2014 it placed first in Forbes list of America's most educated small towns and first on Time's list of top earning towns.
As an unincorporated area, Bethesda has no official boundaries. The United States Census Bureau defines a census-designated place named Bethesda whose center is located at 38°59′N 77°7′W / 38.983°N 77.117°W. The United States Geological Survey has defined Bethesda as an area whose center is at 38°58′50″N 77°6′2″W / 38.98056°N 77.10056°W, slightly different from the Census Bureau's definition. Other definitions are used by the Bethesda Urban Planning District, the United States Postal Service (which defines Bethesda to comprise the zip codes 20810, 20811, 20813, 20814, 20815, 20816, and 20817), and other organizations. According to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2013, the community had a total population of 63,374. Most of Bethesda's residents are in Maryland Legislative District 16.