This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I’m back with the seemingly bottomless Emil A. Press collection at the DC Historical Society. This one shows a radically different Wisconsin Ave. to what we see now.
The photo apparently is from the summer of 1975. It shows Wisconsin and N, and specifically it shows the exterior of Martin’s Tavern, which certainly looks a lot cozier these days than it did then.
Dominated the center of the shot, of course, is a trash bin. The first notable thing about it is that the photo label identifies it as a “Pride” trash can. I have to guess that pride had a different connotation in 1975 than it does today, because there’s nothing seemingly about gay or lesbian pride on it.
If you zoom in, an explanation emerges. Along the side is written “Pride Keeps Our City Clean”. I guess it was a way to guilt people into not littering. Funnily enough, the city was still doing a version of this as recently as 2018.
The can also has a fun ad for a tropical plant store, unimaginatively named “Tropical Plants of Georgetown”. It was located at 3211 O St., which is now Arcay Chocolates.
This biggest difference between then and now is obviously the sidewalk itself. I suspect a lot of people think the brick sidewalks were laid down by George Washington himself, but no. They’re a relatively recent thing. They were cement like this for most of the 20th century. The old-time bricks were mostly added as part of the Georgetown Project back in the early 2000s.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
Topher,Pride was a community organizing group headed by Mari