Capital One boards up Westbard ATM (Photos)

What's in your wallet? It doesn't really matter anymore at 5370 Westbard Avenue in Bethesda. Capital One has boarded up its ATM inside the venerable glassed-in structure at the edge of the Westwood Shopping Center parking lot. Will the new Westbard Square development have any bank? Stay tuned. 

Asbestos removal project at Capital One bank branch in downtown Bethesda

An asbestos removal project is underway at the Capital One bank branch at 4825 Cordell Avenue in downtown Bethesda. Removal operations will be performed only outside of business hours, so the bank will remain open on its normal schedule during the work. The project is scheduled to be completed on Monday, June 20, 2022. Asbestos exposure can lead to asbestosis, mesothelioma, and colon and lung cancer, thus the effort to remove it from buildings constructed between 1900 and 1980.

Another Bethesda branch of Capital One bank to close

The Capital One branch at 4708 Bethesda Avenue was on a list of the bank's planned closures for 2021, and now we know when. I'm told that as of 5:00 PM on Wednesday, April 28, this branch will be permanently closed. Not only is Capital One massively downsizing its branch network in the region, but a new high-rise is also planned for the corner of Bethesda and Wisconsin Avenue. A Carroll Community Bank branch around the corner already closed, and Starbucks is going to move across Bethesda Avenue to 7200 Wisconsin.

Capital One branch sets closing date at Westwood Shopping Center

Bank is last obstacle to

Westbard groundbreaking

The other shoe has dropped at the wing of the Westwood Shopping Center expected to be demolished in the next twelve months. Rite Aid closed in December, and now its next-door neighbor Capital One has announced its own closing date. The bank branch will permanently close at the end of its final business day on May 20, 2020, according to a Capital One statement.

Both businesses needed to vacate before that portion beyond the Giant grocery store could be demolished. If landlord Regency Centers' staging plan remains the same, the demolition will allow construction of the new Giant building to begin, allowing the grocery store to keep operating in its current building until the new one is ready for occupancy.

Groundbreaking is already almost a year behind schedule on the 22-acre redevelopment of Regency Centers' property along Westbard Avenue and Ridgefield Road in southwest Bethesda. There have been rumors Regency may seek to amend their site plan further to replace a planned apartment building on the Westwood Center II site with senior housing. If true, that would be another improvement in the plan, reducing the development's impact on school overcrowding.

Capital One bank branch closes in Chevy Chase Trust building

Capital One continues to downsize in Bethesda. The latest branch to close is in the iconic Chevy Chase Trust building at East-West Highway and Wisconsin Avenue. This closure has some additional significance, in that this building was the headquarters of Chevy Chase Bank, which was acquired by Capital One ten years ago. Most Chevy Chase Bank branches were converted into Capital One branches.

Bethesda's historic Magruder House for lease

Magruder House, a rare 18th century home in Montgomery County, is now available for lease. The home was sold to MRS Real Estate Investment Properties, LLC in November by Capital One Bank, which had operated a branch there from 1978 until 2015. Also known by its original name, Locust Grove, the brick house and property sold for $1,000,000, according to real estate records. Magruder House is located at 7340 Westlake Terrace.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because it was the home of Samuel Wade Magruder, a towering figure in Montgomery County history, and a major in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. When Montgomery County established its first County courthouse, Magruder was one of the initial presiding judges. Patrick Magruder represented Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives. And most residents above single-digit age are probably familiar with the Magruder's grocery chain, which recently ceased opeation within Montgomery County.

William Wirt in a public
domain image from the
Library of Congress

William Wirt was a boarder at the home when he attended Tusculum Academy, the site of which is now home to the Potomac Methodist Church at 9908 South Glen Road in Potomac, according to the book Maryland, A Guide to the Old Line State. That's right at Falls Road, for those unfamiliar with the location. A native of Bladensburg, Wirt prosecuted the case against Aaron Burr for treason.

After moving to Virginia, Wirt was elected to the House of Delegates, and later became Attorney General of the United States. He was the Anti-Masonic Party candidate for U.S. President in 1832, one of several trounced by Old Hickory himself, Andrew Jackson. One irony in that, is that Wirt represented the Cherokee Nation against Jackson-backed efforts to remove them from Georgia, which concluded in the Trail of Tears forced march west.

Another interesting historical tidbit about this property, is that, after falling out of the Magruder family's ownership, it was at one point owned by the Tenleytown and Rockville Land Company, according to historian John Walton, Jr. That was a division of the trolley company that operated between Friendship Heights and Rockville from 1890 to 1935. Cyclists and joggers today know part of its old right-of-way as the Bethesda Trolley Trail.

A KNLB leasing sign
on the site near Montgomery Mall

Magruder House is being offered for lease by KNLB, according to a sign posted on the property. However, I could not find an online listing on the KNLB website at the time of this writing.

APPARENT FALSE ALARM AT 2 BETHESDA BUILDINGS LAST NIGHT (PHOTOS)

Something drew a major response from several area firehouses last night on Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. Eventually those units departed without incident. Scanner reports indicated that firefighters were checking the roof of one of the tallest buildings in downtown Bethesda, the Capital One towers (Chevy Chase Bank building). Nothing was found. Firefighters were also seen inside the lobby of the Akridge-developed 7550 Wisconsin office building.

Firefighter in lobby at
7550 Wisconsin

CAPITAL ONE BANK CLOSES 7700 OLD GEORGETOWN ROAD BRANCH (PHOTOS)

Forget what's in your wallet, where's your bank?!

Capital One has closed one of its downtown Bethesda branches at 7700 Old Georgetown Road.  The closure was planned, and the branch was on a list of several DC area locations designated for closure this year by the Fairfax County-based banking giant.

Ironically, the bank was across the street from a BP gas station, which also closed about two weeks ago.