This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM is visiting Wisconsin Ave. in the 1930s. The photo comes from a large framed print in the Citizens Association of Georgetown’s offices (the same photo, colorized, is displayed on a wall at the TD Bank).
This is a wonderful photo. It’s taken from above the street looking north from just above the intersection with Prospect. It shows the curve in the road that gives this stretch such a nice attractive quality.
And while the buildings look quite different from those today, most of these buildings are still up.
The row of buildings are the far left are still here, but look quite different now:
The capital on the top of the bigger building to the left is gone, and the paint scheme is far lighter these days, but the biggest difference is at the street level. It once have a wooden porch sort of facade. This is long gone.
The smaller structures next to it have also changed a lot. There’s a balcony on one of them, and it also looks like it had clapboard siding.
And just generally with all the buildings there are a lot more awnings, a necessity in pre-air condition DC.
Another change GM always loves to point out is the sidewalks:
They’re concrete. The old timey brick sidewalks we have today are as authentic as Disney World.
I detest the brick sidewalks. Not only are they “disneyland”, they are hazardous
Love the brick sidewalks. I’d like to know what they were before concrete. They likely were brick originally right? Or would they have been wood?