Bethesda, Tennessee is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in rural southeastern Williamson County

Williamson County, Tennessee

Williamson County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010 US Census, the population was 183,182. The County's seat is Franklin, and it is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is named after Hugh Williamson, a...

, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

.

History

According to a 1988 study of Williamson County historical resources, conducted by staff of the Tennessee Historical Commission

Tennessee Historical Commission

The Tennessee Historical Commission is a Tennessee state government agency, a division of the Department of Environment and Conservation, that has missions related to the state's history and historic preservation....

:

Bethesda was formed along Rutherford Creek in the early 1800s as a small community serving the needs of area farms. Several early settlers built log and frame homes in the area such as the Bond and Steele families. The Bethesda Methodist Church was organized in 1832 and a brick church was constructed in 1844. Of the homes constructed in the Bethesda area the William Steele House is the most notable and unaltered. No historic commercial buildings survive.

Properties on the National Register of Historic Places

The William Steele House is located on Bethesda-Arno Road, 1/2 mile east of Bethesda. It was built in 1850 and was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1988.

Bethesda is also the location of Smithson-McCall Farm

Smithson-McCall Farm

Smithson-McCall Farm is a historic district in Bethesda, Tennessee that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. It is locally significant "in how the property documents the impact of the progressive agricultural movement of the early twentieth century on the operations and...

, which was listed on the National Register in 2007.