For decades, the downtown in Bethesda, Md., had little more than a hardware store, a toy store and a few restaurants. The small urban core along Wisconsin Avenue was mostly a place to pass through on the way to the District of Columbia a few miles to the south, or the Bethesda Naval Hospital or the National Institutes of Health several blocks to the north.

But in the mid-1980s, as the Metro subway system’s Red Line was extended to Bethesda, the unincorporated community began to take on the characteristics of a small city. Soon several high-rise buildings were constructed. They were filled by law firms, financial service companies and trade associations.

Hotels, restaurants and boutiques soon followed, and a Barnes & Noble bookstore opened as an anchor in a revitalized retail area a few blocks from the Metro station. It was not too long before a bank replaced the hardware store on Wisconsin Avenue, movie theaters opened, and dozens of new restaurants arrived in the new pedestrian-friendly streetscape.