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Entrance to the Writer’s Center, with columns and
extended beams creating a front porch.

Scribe Vibe
Scribe Vibe

Writers Find Welcoming Environment

in a Former Youth Center

by G. Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA

“It began in 1961 or 1962” was the unexpected answer
when Mark McInturff, FAIA, was asked how long
he had been involved in the conversion of the former
Bethesda Youth Center into the Writer’s Center. “I was
a student at BCC [the nearby Bethesda-Chevy Chase
High School], and that’s where I went on a Friday night.
I played in bands there.”
Designed by the estimable firm of Keyes,
Lethbridge & Condon (which, several generations
later, is now the DC office of SmithGroup), the
original Bethesda Youth Center was modest in its
scale and architectural expression. The building’s one
distinguishing feature was a row of notched beams
projecting over the brick façade, with clerestory
windows between them. Despite its initial popularity,
the youth center closed in 1970, and the building
entered a multi-decade decline.
The Montgomery County government now
leases the building to the Writer’s Center, a local non-
profit literary organization founded in 1976. After
Reception area.
70 SCRIBE VIBE