Car Pulled from Bethesda Farm Women's Market Building

The car that rammed into the Bethesda Farm Women's Market building on Wednesday, Nov. 6, was removed from the building on Thursday morning, Nov. 14.

The car had been parked partially in the building and partially in a parking space for more than a week. The car appeared to have been driven into the building—a historic structure built in 1932, The Gazette reported—from the parking space.

No one was injured when the car crashed into the building, Bethesda Now reported last week.

Before the county could pull the car out, the building needed to be made structurally sound. A temporary shoring-up wall was constructed by an engineer hired by the market, The Gazette added.

On Thursday, with the car out of the building, market vendors waited for the "OK" from the structural engineer to re-open the building, hopefully on Friday or Saturday, local business owner Carol Carrier told Patch.  

Carrier's flower shop Plant Masters—located inside the market building—was hit directly by the car, as the shop is on the other side of the exterior wall from the parking space from which the car drove into the building.

Now that the car is out and a temporary wall is supporting the structure, the wall can begin to be repaired. Because the building is historic, the replacement siding must match the original wooden siding, Carrier said.

Carrier hasn't figured out how much damage was done to her business by the car crashing into her business space, but "there was some damage for sure," she said.

During the past week, she and other business owners who generally set up shop inside the market building had to set up outside the building, as the building had been deemed unsafe to be in.

Those businesses may have lost business during the past week because of the cold weather, and also because many of those businesses (such as those selling meats, cheeses, flowers, etc.) need electricity to store products.

Carrier did set up shop outside last Saturday, but during the week, it was too cold to have the flowers outside, she said.

There was "definitely some lost income for a lot of families," but "customers have been wonderful in giving us their support," she added.

The Bethesda Farm Women's Market (7155 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda) is open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Sundays, there is an outdoor flea market in the yard and parking lot of the building.