GM recently took part in a focus group being run by the BID designed to find out what Georgetowners like or dislike about the neighborhood and what could be done to improve it. At the beginning of the session, the participants introduced themselves and stated, among other things, what their first memory of Georgetown was. It was an interesting way to kick off a discussion of what people think of the neighborhood.
While GM moved to Georgetown ten years ago, his first memory is much older than that. In the mid 80s, his family came down to DC from Connecticut for something or another (it was either part of a visiting fife and drum corps or the time GM’s brother won the Sea Breeze Award for “teenager of the year” and got to meet Nancy Reagan and Ms. America). Either way, GM remembers bunking up with his family in one room at the Hotel Harrington.
The Georgetown memory is of waiting forever to get a table at the legendary Geppetto’s Pizza, which once occupied the space currently housing Unum. Growing up the in northeast, GM had never experienced pizza that thick. Through the compound interest of memory, that pizza is still the best pizza GM ever ate.
Last summer, GM finally visited the remaining location of Geppetto’s in Bethesda. The marionettes are still there, and the pizza is still quite good, but nothing can top memory.
So, what’s your first memory of Georgetown? Did you come here on a school trip? Did you grow up in the suburbs and come in to catch of movie at one of the old theaters? Or a show at a club like the Cellar Door?
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
My first memory is at the age of 10, so about the same time you came down here, and driving over the Key Bridge into town with my family. I pointed to Healy Tower and asked my Dad what it was. He told me it was Georgetown University which was the oldest Catholic school in the country, and maybe I would go to college there someday. And about eight years later, I did.
It’s not my first memory but certainly my fondest: saturday mornings at the French Market with my Dad. He would order tongue on a type of flat bread (fougasse?) and I would get the lamb. Garlic, cheese, chocolate, roast meats, everything all rolled in to one amazing aroma.
I remember the arcade that was on M Street about one block west of Wisc Ave. I spent a small fortune (in quarters) in that place. This was around 1994 or so?
I came to DC as an intern (as so many do) and never left. My first memory of Georgetown was coming to a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Key Theater. And I still have the Commander Salamander tee that I bought that night.
I know I got near Georgetown on a business trip where I came up with my dad as a 9 year old, we stayed at One Washington Circle and put our initials in drying sidewalk cement then…but that was still a few blocks away. I know I got here around age 16 on a school trip from Florida when a group of us ended up shopping at the then still newish Georgetown Park mall…two years later was back again on the same trip and took advantage of lax drinking laws and a good fake ID to have a great dinner and bottle of wine at J Pauls with a girlfriend. Half a year later she would drive with me from Florida to drop me off for college at Georgetown on a campus I had never seen…and now into my third decade, it is hard to imagine living somewhere else.
And since you mentioned The Cellar Door…growing up in Florida was friends with John Boyle as kids (his dad having run Cellar Door and turned it into the promotion company then based in Ft. Lauderdale). Used to see photos of Georgetown in their house. That is until a falling out over the “alleged” theft by one John of my favorite Star Wars action figure leading to the “knee to the groin” response when I called him on it at his grandmother’s one day. We were never as close after, can’t imagine why. 😉
In Spring 1997, I remember riding over the Key Bridge from the GW Parkway, for a GU accepted students weekend. Although I had been to DC twice before, it was the first time to Georgetown, and the way the whole neighborhood (and campus) opened up as we crossed the bridge gave me goosebumps.
5 months later, we crossed the bridge again for new student move-in, and the blue and gray balloons on all the Key Bridge light posts seemed to seal that this was a place that would stick with me for a while. 16 years later, that’s definitely been the case.
I visited DC several times as a kid, both on family trips and on a school trip after 7th grade, but I don’t remember visiting Georgetown any of those times, although perhaps we did. So I would have to say my first memory was visiting the neighborhood and campus when looking at colleges during the spring break of my junior year of high school. Oddly enough, I remember we entered campus from the north, so I didn’t have that same magical Key Bridge vista experience that others have described above. The main thing that stuck out, I recall, was the campus being very floral, tons of bright flowers everywhere, and a very lush front lawn. Red Square also – very fitting for me, as a native Muscovite. I knew I wanted to study international relations, so when I get my acceptance letter from the SFS, my college search was over. Been here ever since.
I remember going to Poseurs for my fix of punk music and momentarily living the rebel life. And the night could not finish without a late night fix of pommes frites at “the Pig” (wish I could remember the name of the restaurant on Wisconsin, but it was in French and had something to do with a pig.
Probably my first clear memory that doesn’t involve driving by the Exorcist steps and the car barn, is from when I was seven in 1987. One of my uncles was a manager at Pall Mall, a hang-out for the Redskins. After they won the Super Bowl, I remember trying on one of their championship rings that fit on three of my fingers at once!
Patrick, you’re likely thinking of Au Pied Au Cochon (roughly: the pig’s foot), now, sadly, Five Guys.
Meeting up with my college girlfriend for her brother’s graduation, eating at what used to be the Argentine restaurant on M st, and a really heavy make out session that ended up in the Holiday Inn, with several pieces of clothing left along what I’d guess is 34th st.
Merci beaucoup, Jacquer! That was it!
Lived in Gtown since 1986. Don’t know what my first memory was, but Poseurs featured, as did hanging out with a big burly guy named Fluffy at Orpheus Records. I was 14, combat boots and dyed black hair and thought I was so cool.
BTW – if anyone else was around in the 80s – there are several Facebook groups dedicated to the Poseurs scene 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/groups/84528815373/
My first memories of Georgetown: October 1966, stepping down into The Tombs on 36th Street, sitting at the bar, the Four Tops on the jukebox … “it’s the same old song… the beer was iced cold, the coeds were drop dead gorgeous. I thought I was in heaven. I declared then and there, “I love Georgetown. I’m never going to leave.” I stayed for 44 years, 42 of which was serving as Editor and or Publisher of The Georgetowner newspaper.
Early memories as a child: late 1950’s – my mother was the night cleaning lady at the old Corcoran School (29th & M st). Used to take the street car from Lafayette Square to M st to get with her after school there.
60’s – buying American flag shirts and Superman shirts at Commander Salamander;
70’s as DC Police officer – Baklava and Gyros at Icarus (Wisconsin & M); Hot Pastrami on Rye toast at Mr Smith’s (stil there, I think) 30th & M; Cannon’s Seafood Market , 31st & Blues Alley; bar fights at The Good Guys, Wisconsin & W st (still there); watching the limos drop off VIP’s at the Rive Gauche, Wisconsin & M.
80’s as a DC prosecutor – Sat nights at the discotheque above Rive Gauche (forgot the name); Au Pied de Cochon for after midnight dinners; The American Cafe for 1st dates, Wisconsin & Congress; Billy Martin’s. Wisconsin & N (Redskin players used to meet there in the back room bar after home games, Kilmer, Hauss, Talbert, etc.); the annual Halloween Parade from M st at Wisconsin to 29th (police blocked the street for revelers in costume).
90’s as a DC law firm partner – Aditi for good Indian food (with tall bearded guy dressed as a sheik standing at the front door) 33rd & M; the Booeymonger for good and cheap sandwiches (used to be at 29th & N but since moved); used to leave Gtown by 11PM on weekends due to the influx of SE kids showing up.
2000’s – moved to Ft Lauderdale
Thank you for the chance to revisit wonderful memories.
Robert P: Will gladly walk down the street to Booeymongers and trade you the sandwich of your choice if you can head to LaSpadas (the original location in Ft. Lauderdale) and ship me a taste of my childhood. 😉 I think it is on Sea Grape just a block or two from A1A and Commercial.
My first memory was staying at the Georgetown Inn early in 1966, when we first moved here and did not yet have a house. Then it was moving into our little house on Volta Place, the 7th Precinct right across the street, and walking to Hyde just a street away (if you cut through the precinct grounds and entered on the Addison School side). The Lutheran church at the corner was where you could (and still can) find bunches of violets growing about this time of year. Just across the street on Wisconsin Avenue, where Leonidas is (was), was the Parlor ice cream shop with its marble tables and garden seating. Outside we often saw the balloon seller with the deep, booming voice: “Make the ladies happy, make the children happy!” Neam’s was our corner market of those days, and People’s Drug Store was the hangout. Ah, the candy counter and luncheonette in the rear! How many comic books I bought there! Georgetown seemed a small place back then.
Kate:
I live right around the corner from your old house! We have one if the houses that shares that alley. It’s the prettiest alley I’ve ever seen: completely brick. Kids use it as a playground.
Which particular house did you live in?
It was 3217 Volta. An identical house is on the market (3213) and the floor plan is a mirror image of ours. Of course, our house and garden were much more modest in those days. That alley you mention may be pretty now, but in my day it was quite rundown and many of the garages were abandoned and had rusted, nonworking doors. Stray cats had their litters in there, and all during spring we would be kept awake by the cat fights and yoweling.The back yards led right to the alley, and that alley fed to the east directly to church and Wisconsin Avenue. We also used it as a playground, but perhaps a slightly more edgy one given its condition.