Where’s the Center of Georgetown?

For no particular reason at all, GM was wondering the other day: where is the center of Georgetown? The “spiritual” center may be M and Wisconsin (which is a problem). But where is the actual geographic center?

Turns out this is a more complicated question than GM anticipated. There’s no textbook definition of geographic center. There are a variety of methods, each one resulting in a slightly different result. GM chose two of the simpler methods and applied them to Georgetown:

The first method is to simply draw the smallest box around the exterior points of the area and find the center of the box. Using the official boundaries of Georgetown, GM did so. The result centers on the northwest corner of Hyde-Addison, essentially where the gazebo is.

The second method is only slightly different than the first. This time you draw the smallest circle that encapsulates the area and find that shape’s center. With this method, the center move about a quarter of the way down the block, to about 3270 P St. So if that’s your house, congrats! Georgetown revolves around you (as per one method)!

Either way, it appears the 3200 block of P St. is the center of Georgetown. And now you know, for whatever it’s worth…