Author Archives: Topher

At the turn of the 20th century, a smelling, decrepit and shameful scene lingered in Georgetown: the old Presbyterian Burying Ground. And for Georgetown Time Machine, GM will take a closer look at it by way of an article from 1902 in the Washington Times.

Rather than try to tell the whole story of the old cemetery, GM will mostly direct you to the surprisingly extensive Wikipedia article about it instead. But in short: the burying ground was built in 1802 by the Georgetown Presbyterian Church on the site of the current Volta Park. At the time the church was located at what is now 30th and M, which had its own graveyard, but that soon filled up:

As described in Wikipedia:

Presbyterian Burying Ground was laid out simply, similar to most cemeteries of the day. The cemetery had two gravel paths, lined with fir trees, one which bisected the grounds east–west and another which extended from 4th Street north to the center of the block.^[14][15][16] The main entrance was in the east on Market Street.^[17]Black locust trees were planted about the grounds.^[17] A winding, somewhat circular path occupied the intersection of the two fir-lined gravel walkways.^[14] No other footpaths were laid out, however, and access to most graves, vaults, and mausoleums were via informal dirt ruts in the lawn. Vandals and children were kept out by a high wooden fence.

The land was donated by the wealthy Beatty family on the condition it always be used as a cemetery (that became an issue later). A chapel was constructed on Market St. on the east side of the grounds in 1855:

But by second half of the 19th century, the burying ground was in steep decline. It accepted its last burying in 1887, and then, lacking the income from new burials, its finances spiraled. In 1891 the cemetery was closed. Descendants of loved ones were asked to remove the remains by the end of the year. Any remaining bodies would be interred in a mass grave elsewhere. Notwithstanding this deadline, most of the bodies remained and disinterments occurred spottily throughout the 1890s.

In the meantime what was left was a field of smelling, open graves, toppled gravestones and crumbling vaults. By 1900 it also became a dump for Georgetown residents.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Apparently Tatte bakery is coming to the old Frye store building (i.e. the Vigilant Fire House)
• French Market coming back at the end of April

Mamam, a French bakery with locations in NYC, is opening a location in Georgetown on Wisconsin Ave. The bakery will be opening at 1353 Wisconsin Ave.

The bakery also features a cafe specializing in Provençal cuisine. And, according to Washingtonian, it leans heavily into the Instagram chic decor intended to attract patrons as much for the selfie backdrop as for its salad Niçoise. Like that other NYC import, Levain, Mamam’s cookies are supposedly pretty good. So there’s that at least.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• In a somewhat troubling omen, GU’s covid numbers are spiking up again.
• Dead body found in the canal.

Please join us for an Earth Day worth celebrating with a neighborhood clean-up and scavenger hunt, presentations by The Georgetown Garden Club, who will be sharing information about native species, and Trees for Georgetown will be sharing information on climate change.

Casey & Co will be selling annuals, perennials, herbs, and mulch. Little ones will have a chance to ‘Make and Take’ a flower pot and plant some seeds.

Bring your own plant for a plant swap!

There will be food from the Georgetown Grilling Society and live music. Everyone is welcome!

Come out to change the world!

Click here to register.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice profile on self-professed alley kid, Raya Kenney.
• More mundane traffic violence from a driver with a string of speeding tickets.

You may have stopped to look through the shop window. Or maybe you just received a text and stood to read it. Or maybe your child kneeled to tie her shoe. These things surely happened countless times on Saturday just minutes before 1:00 pm.

But if they just happened to occur at exactly 1:00 pm it would have been deadly.

That’s because at that moment a driver slammed his car into two parked cars hard enough to propel them across the sidewalk into shop window.

And the driver? He has ten unpaid speeding tickets dating back to 2019.

The driver owes DC over $2,500 in speeding fines. But like many Maryland and Virginia drivers, this one likely realizes that there is no reason to pay DC camera-issued tickets if you’re not a DC resident. There is no reciprocity. Maryland and Virginia refuses to enforce the tickets against their own residents.

The DC Council passed a bill requiring the Mayor to seek a new reciprocity agreement with Maryland and Virginia to account for camera-issued tickets. The mayor claimed the two states rebuffed the requests, but then it turned out that Bowser never even formally asked. Mayor Bowser has never shown that she cares particularly much about lawless drivers and her failure to even asked Maryland or Virginia to help out is par for the course with her.

So Maryland and Virginia drivers only need to pay camera-issued DC tickets out of the kindness of their hearts.

And the reckless drivers know it.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Driver plows another car into a nail salon. (More on this later).
• Is it time to allow swimming in the Potomac and Anacostia rivers?