Author Archives: Topher

GM was browsing Ebay looking for a vintage postcard to feature in Georgetown Time Machine when he came across a cache of fantastic (mostly) old matchbooks from Georgetown establishments. As far as cultural ephemera go, they’re pretty easy to overlook, but it’s a trip down memory lane either way. So here they are:

This legendary college bar was famously the shooting location for the interior bar shots from St. Elmo’s Fire. It closed in 2013 after 44 years.

This French restaurant occupied 3057 M St. It closed in the 90s and was replaced by Miss Saigon.

This is an older matchbook from the George Town Club. It’s from when the club mistakenly asserted that it occupied the former Suter’s Tavern building (which was actually down on Water St.).

Thanksgiving is still a couple weeks away, but GM wanted to pass on a tip to you to consider ordering your bird through Stachowski’s.

Here’s the link to order. The offer excellent Amish heirloom turkeys. GM has been ordering his through them for years and they never disappoint. And there’s something so traditional about ordering your turkey through your neighborhood butcher rather than picking up a factory farm-produced bird at the supermarket.

GM has one bit of warning though! The giblet stash in the turkey has included the entire head and feet! Talk about throwback…

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Towne Liquors completes its move up the street.
• Hugh Jacobsen’s former house for sale.

GM is finally back with an installment in his Where the Streets Had Old Names series! Today he is exploring the street currently known as 36th St.

Prior to the street renaming in 1895, this short little street was named Lingan Street. However prior to that it was known as Gay St. It was renamed Lingan Street in the 1810s, and the reason for the switch was quite dramatic, as described below.

Lingan Street was named after James McCubbin Lingan. Lingan was born in 1751 in Hartford County, Maryland (coincidentally the very same month that Georgetown was founded). He would later serve in the Maryland militia and obtained the rank of Lieutenant during the Revolution. However, he was captured at Fort Washington in New York just months into his service and spent years on a prison ship.

As a young man, Lingan moved to Georgetown, working in the tobacco warehouses and acquiring land. He was among the first men named as Alderman when Georgetown was officially recognized as a town in 1789. And he was one of the original nineteen landowners that signed an agreement for the establishment of the District of Columbia.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Alliance for New Music Theater is working on a musical theater production about Georgetown’s black cemeteries. A preview of some of the music will take place this Wednesday.
• Some Georgetown Glow installations will remain up throughout the month.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Taste whiskey with Mount Vernon’s own master distiller tonight at the City Tavern.
• The new chocolate shop on Wisconsin is now open.

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is exploring once again a postcard found on Ebay.

This particular postcard shows a scene of Georgetown College as viewed from Observatory Hill. You can see how much more rural the western half of the campus was at the turn of the last century.

The card itself was sent on March 28, 1905. It is addressed to Miss Nellie T. Downes of Brooklyn, NY. care of Edward Fearon. (Downes married Fearon shortly thereafter).

Curiously the sender of the postcard (who’s only identified with the initials “CCD”) tells Downes “Our Glee and Mandolin Club Concert – April 4 – Wouldn’t you like to come and hear us. We’re good-if not bad.”