This week on Georgetown Time Machine, I’m checking out a photo from when M St. was a much different place from what it is today. It was way more oriented towards cars, with about half a dozen garages, a few car dealerships, and today’s item: an auto-parts store.
This store occupied the historic Georgetown Market building. This is a building I’ve written about many times in the past, but in short: it was a market building constructed by the city of Georgetown in 1865 on a location that had hosted another market since 1795.
The auto-parts store actually moved in in 1945 and remained there until the mid 70s. This photo was taken in 1959.
Following the closing of the auto parts store, the city, which came to own the building following the abolition of the Georgetown municipality, decided it should be a market once more. In fact, the law requires it to be used as a market. In that spirit, a farmers market, in the mold of Eastern Market, was opened in the early 80s. It failed. Soon after Dean and Deluca moved it. They remained for decades before closing late last decade.
The space remained vacant for years, but then Stephen Starr signed a lease to bring Mozza Osteria. It had to clear the hurdle that it could qualify as a “market”, hence the vestigial grocery store that occupies the vestibule of the building. Apparently selling a couple boxes of dry pasta and some onions qualifies.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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