Bethesda Magazine's 30 Great Neighborhoods to Live In

NEIGHBORHOODS WITH ACCESS TO THE BELTWAY/INTERSTATE 270

WILDWOOD MANOR

Lynn Tapiero says her Wildwood Manor neighborhood is a commuter’s dream. It’s located in Bethesda where I-270 and I-495 meet. Old Georgetown Road cuts through it, connecting to Rockville Pike. Democracy Boulevard intersects the neighborhood, too. If there’s congestion on one route, Tapiero uses another. “Wherever the traffic backs up, I can still get home,” she says. Some residents leave the car behind altogether and walk or bike to the nearby Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro station. For all its commuter convenience, Wildwood Manor still has a small-town feel. Families gather each year for a Halloween party in the park, and the annual Fourth of July parade culminates in a potluck dinner at Wildwood Manor Pool. Neighbors stay connected through a Listserv and an active civic association. The nearby Grosvenor Market serves as a community grocer. Wildwood Shopping Center, a collection of stores and boutiques that includes Balducci’s, Le Pain Quotidien, Starbucks and Bluemercury, is within walking distance, and Westfield Montgomery mall isn’t much farther. “For somebody looking for accessibility, affordability and quality of life, you can’t beat this,” Tapiero says.

SOUTH KENSINGTON

The winding streets of South Kensington put residents within minutes of the Beltway, making it a top choice for those who drive to work. “Residents here don’t have that big commute,” says real estate agent Gary Ditto, a South Kensington resident. “You just don’t have to fight the traffic.” It’s not just I-495 that’s close by. Connecticut Avenue cuts through the neighborhood, offering another major route into D.C. So does Beach Drive, which carries drivers into the city along scenic Rock Creek. Kensington has a MARC stop for rail commuters, and residents who work in Bethesda can get to the office by bike. Rock Creek Park is a nice place to escape from the daily grind. “I go down there either biking or running or walking all the time,” Ditto says.

OLD FARM

Stretching alongside I-270, just off Montrose Road in Rockville, Old Farm is a cozy community of mostly brick homes on winding tree-lined streets that offer residents fast access to the highway. “It has easy commuting upcounty and down, into D.C. and into Virginia,” says real estate agent Maryanne Fiorita. It’s one of four neighborhoods in the Greater Farmland Civic Association, a community of 981 homes along the interstate that gathers for an annual Fourth of July parade that ends at the Old Farm pool. The development company Kettler Brothers built Old Farm as a neighborhood of colonials in the mid-1960s on ground that “ever so imperceptibly felt the hoof beats of Col. Jeb Stuart’s cavalry horses passing,” or so claimed a brochure for the project. Stuart’s horses are long gone, but the neighborhood is still a popular choice for residents who have a journey to work every day.

“For somebody looking for accessibility, affordability
and quality of life, you
can’t beat this.”
—Lynn Tapiero, Wildwood Manor resident

Bethesda: Bannockburn, Bradley Park, Carderock Springs, Crestview, Drumaldry, East Bethesda, Fort Sumner, Mohican Hills, Wildwood Manor, Wyngate
N. Bethesda: Luxmanor, Timberlawn
Chevy Chase: Chevy Chase Section 5, Chevy Chase Village, Kenwood, Rollingwood, Chevy Chase, D.C.
Kensington/Garrett Park: Chevy Chase View, Old Town Kensington, South Kensington, Garrett Park
Gaithersburg: Crown, Kentlands, Washington Grove
Potomac: Merry-Go-Round Farm, River Falls
Rockville: King Farm, Old Farm, Rockville’s West End
Silver Spring: Woodside Park