The Georgetown Metropolitan

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, I’m exploring a striking photo of lower Georgetown. The photo comes from the DC Historical Society and is dated to 1905.

The description of the photo states that it’s of M St. looking north. Or rather it says “M(?) St.” looking north. I was drawn to it for a couple reasons. The steepness of the hill made me wonder if it was the old 36th St., which once traveled down a sharp hill to M St. before the construction of the Car Barn. Additionally, I’m a sucker for a question mark on an old photo. Is this really M St.?

Right away I was fairly confident that it was not. At the top of the hill is a foot bridge that looks an awful lot like a bridge over the canal. So I considered which streets heading up from Water or K St. could this be. The houses on the right, halfway up the hill, sort of look like the ones on Cecil Place, but Cecil Place doesn’t (and didn’t) go all the way to the canal.

I then realized that the facade of the building on the left is still standing. It’s the remnant facade along 33rd St.:

So the cobblestone street at the bottom of the hill is Water St., not M St. Another give-away that this is Water St. and not M St. is that the train tracks don’t have a conduit going down the center of them, which is what the electric streetcar tracks in central DC had due to the prohibition of overhead wires. The tracks in this photo are for steam-powered freight trains, not streetcars.

And the presence of the occasional freight train down the middle of the street probably goes a way towards explaining why this block appears to be in slum conditions. Lower Georgetown was, of course, a pretty rough place long before the arrival of steam trains, but it surely didn’t help.

While the two children on the right appear to be black, my understanding is that lower Georgetown had a diverse population. Diverse in race, at least. But in terms of wealth I think it was universally quite poor. It lacked the pockets of rich (white) and middle class (white and black) residents that upper Georgetown had. This pretty much continued right through to the middle 20th century, at which point the industrial buildings were torn down or converted to expensive condos. A handful of the vintage single family homes from the earlier period have survived to the present. I would love to see the face of the residents back in 1905 if they could have heard what their homes were going to sell for in a century’s time.

Out of curiosity I put the photo through Chat GPT to colorize it. And wow. It took 45 seconds to do something I used to take hours in Photoshop to achieve:

I was curious for a head-to-head test, so I took a photo I previously colorized of two Georgetown debutantes from 1923:

Here was my attempt at colorization that took me probably like 2-3 hours:

Here Chat GPT’s, which took it one minute (I told it to give them the same light lime green dresses that I did). The first attempt was actually a bit washed out so I asked it to bump up the saturation. Again this took like maybe another minute:

Honestly, I think my attempt was pretty much just as good! Take that robots!

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown! I’m back from my week off. Here’s the latest:

• Sadly Pizzeria Paradiso is closing its Georgetown location this Sunday after 24 years;
• Much less big news, but the Pressed Juice Bar at Prospect and Wisconsin closed recently.
• The condos in the former West Heat Plant are set to open to residents this year.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s your weekly news round-up:

• Don’t be alarmed by the blasting sounds you might hear soon:it’s part of a DC Water project.
• New president starts at GU.
• I’m heading off to the beach later this week, so I’ll be taking a break from the site for a week or so. See you in late July!

Today for Georgetown Time Machine, I’m checking out another shot from the DC Historical Society. It’s from 1977 and shows an old commercial building–now long gone–in lower Georgetown.

The building was at 1026 30th St. and it housed W.T. Galliher and Bro. This was a lumber company that was founded in the District in 1889 by William T. Galliher and his brother Charles. Funnily I’m not sure if the company was W.T. Galliher and Brothers or just W.T. Galliher and Brother. The front of the building says Bro. instead of Bros., but many listings for the company list it as brothers.

In either event, the company was founded over in old Southwest DC. But this location was quite substantial in its own right. You can see it in this aerial photo of the area from the 1950s:

The business continued until the 1980s. The entire block was replaced by the Foundry Complex.

Last month in my constituent newsletter, I reported on the application of a new licensed pot shop at 1658 33rd St. (in the Coco Health Spa space). I questioned how a permit could be issued for that location since it was within 400 feet of an existing licensed cannabis dealer (Capital Connect, on Wisconsin Ave.)

I’m happy to report that following my inquiries to ABCA, the placard (i.e. the application) was revoked by the ABC Board.

It’s great that the board corrected the improperly issued placard, but it’s bothersome that it took me to point out a simple geographic fact. And this is not the first time that we’ve had to raise this point with ABCA. They don’t always ultimately see it our way. For instance, when we objected to a shop opening on Grace St. for being too close to Grace Episcopal, the agency asserted that since the church building itself (not the church lot) was more than 400 feet away, than it was not an obstacle to the shop opening. (Although I’m not sure that one actually opened.)

In this particular case, I think the initial determination that the proposed location was far enough away from Capital Connect came from an ABCA inspector measuring the distance along the sidewalk. That is not the method they are supposed to use. They are supposed to measure “as the crow flies”, i.e. the shortest line between the two buildings.

As we on the ANC have said all along: we’re fine with legally licensed and regulated cannabis shops that operate under well drafted settlement agreements. But part of that is following all the proximity rules on the books. Clearly it takes a village sometimes to make sure those rules are all followed.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s your weekly news round-up:

• That juice bar at N and Wisconsin seems to have shut down.
• Here are some more comings and goings, including a new tenant of the old Third Edition space.
• Remember, trash/recycling shifts to Saturday this week, despite the fact it is the Fourth of July.

Hello, and welcome to the July Northwest Georgetown ANC Update!

Disruptive DC Water Construction Coming

Lead poisoning is no joke. It can seriously harm your brain development and impact your life permanently. Some have made the persuasive case that lead poisoning explains the explosion of crime across the world in the latter part of the 20th century (and its eradication explains the subsequent fall in crime at the end of the century).

I say that all just to preface the bad news: the streets around our part of Georgetown are going to be a mess over the next year or so as part of an effort to completely rid our water system of old lead pipes. You see, some of the water main pipes in Georgetown (and other parts of DC) are made out of lead. In other words, pipes that deliver water you probably drank sometime in the last 24 hours traveled through lead pipes. Now, luckily hardly any lead (if any at all) is actually leaching into the water. But it’s still a bad idea to leave them there, and DC Water is getting rid of them.

They are working in three phases:

Phase 1 is in east Georgetown on 29th and P Streets. This is already underway and will continue through this summer. Phase 2 gets closer to our part of Georgetown, along P and 32nd Streets. That will start this August and run through November. Finally, Phase 3 will be the most impactful to my constituents. It will cover Wisconsin Ave. between P and Q streets. And it will also include the first block of Volta Place off Wisconsin Ave. This work will begin next January and run through next April.

The work will be pretty impactful. They plan to be often shutting down one lane of traffic during the day, using flaggers to alternate traffic through the one lane. That includes Wisconsin Ave. Work will be wrapped up by the evening, at which point both lanes will be reopened. The next workday it will all happen all over again.

This is in contrast to the work being done by DC Water on Q St. right now east of 28th. That work is shutting down an entire lane for the entirety of the project. Only westbound traffic is allowed on the block (which is diverting Metrobuses down P St.).

So at least it won’t be as bad as that. But it will be a pain. Hopefully it will be over when they say it will.

And remember, it’s to get lead pipes out of your water supply. That’s worth a short term hassle as far as I’m concerned.

Oh, and if you live on these blocks, DC Water will be checking each service line (i.e. the pipes that bring water from the street into your house) to see if they are also lead. If they are, they will replace it for free. If it’s not, well, that’s nice to find out too.

Volta Park Construction Complete

As many have observed, the Volta Park construction is complete. Much of the work they did is not visible but will become apparent the next deluge. Whereas in the past, floods of water caused erosion you could observe in real time. Now (hopefully) the water will be quickly absorbed into the new network of drainage pipes.

Of course there’s visible work too, including a brand new field of thick grass on the ball field and an infield that no longer ends with an ankle-killing ledge. There is, of course, the fence in the northwest corner that drew objections. I am hopeful that it will help keep the dog activity segregated from any organized events, like little league, on the ball field. I have received multiple complaints over the years from parents of children bitten by unattended dogs. This should help prevent that happening again.

There are still some issues that remain. Portions of the new grass are already dead. I’ve reported that to DPR for remediation. The grass in the northwest corner beyond that fence is in really poor shape. They put grass seed down, but the soil is so hard-packed that the see has zero chance of actually taking root. That will take fixing too.

Speaking of Volta Park, this week Councilmember Pinto’s office confirmed that despite the steep budget challenges, the council was able to fund a new splash-pad for the park. This was an idea I’ve been pushing for for years, so I’m happy it will come to fruition.

Summer Sign-Off:

We have no ANC meeting in August, so this newsletter will also take a break. But if anything comes up that you need help with, don’t fail to reach out to me at 2e02@anc.dc.gov. Here are few more things to remember:

• Volta Pool is open 12-8 pm Tuesday through Friday and 10 am to 6 pm on the weekends. Jelleff Pool is closed for the (much delayed) renovations of the rec center.
• For Fourth of July, no boats are allowed in the water near Georgetown. Pedestrians will be still allowed to go the Waterfront Park and Key Bridge, just leave the kayaks and paddle-boards at home. Also, the fireworks are starting super later (10:30 pm) and will run super long (45 minutes). So if you’ve got kiddos that need sleep, or doggos that need some peace, maybe skip town?
• Trash and recycling will be picked up Saturday morning (i.e. the Fourth) due to the federal holiday following on Friday.

And with that, have a great summer!

If your trashcan has an approximately rat-sized hole on its lid I will give you a single guess at how it got there. This is a serious problem because rats love trash. They literally eat it up. So when your trash can has this hole in it, it is like a flashing neon OPEN sign to rats telling them that a 24 hour diner is here for the patronizing.

Which brings me to what you can do to address this problem. The city will replace your can free of charge if you use 311. (Now, there’s a separate question about 311. I’ve been hearing a lot of reports of the app being essentially non-functional. So I would recommend either calling 311 on the phone or using the webpage, which I can confirm is working right now). So please, if you’ve got a can with a hole, reach out to 311.

But, you say, “I don’t have a rat-sized hole in my can. In fact I don’t have any hole in my can. What can I do to help keep the rat population down?”

Well I’ve got good news for you too.

You can reach out to the city rat abatement program to have them come out and inspect your property to identify any possible rat attractions that it might contain. Reach them at rodent.control@dc.gov. You can also do this by 311 by requesting rodent inspection and treatment. Again, it’s all free.

Better yet, if you and your neighbors can organize and make the request together, the city inspectors can come and make a more comprehensive inspection of your whole block. While it’s great to reduce the rat attractions on your own property, if your neighbor’s property is still a problem, you’ll still have a problem too.

Rats has been here forever, and they’ll likely be he forevermore. But there don’t have to be so many. And the only way to get the numbers down is if we all pitch in together and do our parts. So get cracking!

Last week DC Democrats made a fairly dramatic swing to the left across the board in their primary election. As the DC primary is the de facto general election for most of the important political seats in the city, these results are in effect the final results. But did Georgetown follow that trend?

(There’s a funny rule called Betteridge’s Law that states anytime a news article poses a question like that, the answer is always “no”. And that’s true here!)

With one exception, Georgetown did not follow the citywide trend. It voted for Kenyan McDuffie, Brooke Pinto, and Lisa Raymond, each of whom came up short in their races against outspokenly left-leaning candidates.

The one exception was actually not technically part of the Democratic primary. This was the special election to fill the non-Democratic At-Large seat that Kenyan McDuffie vacated to run for mayor. Former councilmember Elissa Silverman comfortably won that seat back (she lost it to McDuffie in 2022). Georgetown also favored her comfortably, with 59% of its vote going to her (which is actually higher than her overall total of 55%).

(I should also note that in the other at-large contest, the left-leaning candidate that won overall, Oye Oeolewa, lost in Georgetown, but only just. He lost to Lisa Raymond in Georgetown by only 10 votes.)

The fact that Georgetown was so out-of-step with the rest of the city on the choice for mayor is rather notable. It’s only the second time this has happened since the Marion Barry years. There have only been a handful genuinely contested primaries since then: 2002 (Anthony Williams first run, which was hampered by a screw-up that forced him to run as a write-in), 2006 (Fenty’s one victory), 2010 (when Gray unseated Fenty), 2014 (when Bowser unseated Gray), and this year.

Georgetown voted with the rest of the city in 2002, 2006 (Fenty remarkably won every single precinct this year), and 2014. It split with it in 2010 (Georgetown voted overwhelmingly to re-elect Fenty) and last week. I’m sure partisans of both candidates can divine a message in that, but I’ll pass on offering one myself.

Here are the vote totals for Georgetown with the overall winning candidate bolded:

DEM Delegate to U.S. House

• Brooke Pinto: 924 (59.6%)
• Robert White: 419 (27.0%)
• Kinney Zalesne: 116 (7.5%)
• Greg Jaczko: 55 (3.5%)
• Trent Holbrook: 34 (2.2%)

DEM Mayor

• Kenyan R. McDuffie: 913 (57.6%)
• Janeese Lewis George: 454 (28.7%)
• Gary Goodweather: 77 (4.9%)
• Hope Solomon: 71 (4.5%)
• Rini Sampath: 42 (2.7%)
• Vincent Orange (“VO”): 23 (1.5%)
• Ernest E. Johnson: 3 (0.2%)

DEM At-Large Council (2 seats)

• Lisa Raymond: 320 (24.3%)
• Oye Owolewa: 310 (23.5%)
• Kevin B. Chavous: 207 (15.7%)
• Fred Hill: 182 (13.8%)
• Greg Jackson: 118 (9.0%)
• Dwight Davis: 66 (5.0%)
• Candace Tiana Nelson: 55 (4.2%)
• Leniqua’dominique Jenkins: 25 (1.9%)
• Dyana N. M. Forester: 25 (1.9%)

As reported in the Georgetowner, Cady’s Alley’s long standing heart, Kafe Leopold, closed yesterday. The local favorite was open for 21 years.

As Anthony Lanier has recounted many times before, as he was developing Cady’s Alley, he couldn’t convince a restauranteur to take a chance on the space. So he simply decided to do it himself, so he teamed with Paul Guzzardo to recreate the Austrian cafe’s of his homeland. It was a big success and has been well loved by locals and visitors alike ever since.

The Georgetown reports that the decision to close was not like so many of the other stories we’ve heard in recent years. It wasn’t a hike in rent, Guzzardo just wanted to retire. It’s a retirement well earned.

I always loved the feel of Leopold’s, even if I didn’t get to it as much as I’d like. Having honeymooned in Vienna and Salzburg, a trip here would bring me back to that trip, sans red-eye flight. I do hope whatever replaces it is similarly transporting.