From 1820 to 1837, a newspaper called the Georgetown Metropolitan was published in the city of Georgetown, DC. The copy above is from July 12, 1826, reporting on the deaths of Presidents Jefferson and Adams on July 4th, exactly fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. For a short while, it was published by John L. O’Sullivan and his brother-in-law Samuel Langtree. O’Sullivan faded into obscurity until the middle of the 20th century when the term “Manifest Destiny” was attributed to him.
So what does this have to do with 2008? Well, not much. But, basically I’ve realized that the neighborhood of Georgetown lacks a neighborhood blog. I’ve decided to give it a try. I looked through Georgetown’s history for a worthy name to resurrect and the Georgetown Metropolitan sounded perfect to me. And so I have reestablished the Georgetown Metropolitan, 171 years since it last was printed. With luck, the Georgetown Metropolitan will serve as a valuable information source for Georgetown residents.
Starting this month, the overall cap on tavern licenses in Georgetown has doubled from six to twelve.
This change was part of a larger ABC law that became effective on June 30th. This change was something GM wrote about last February. Specifically he asked “will the change even matter?” It was the sharp decline in rowdy bars that made the increase even possible. But with that drop, has the entire market for non-restaurant bars in Georgetown disappeared completely? Time will tell.
Last December, a fancy French bon bon shop opened at 1332 Wisconsin Ave. called Petite Soeur. The promising little shop took over a space that has a seen a succession of not-terribly long lived sweet shops (including The Cookie Jar, Beard Poppa’s and a frozen yogurt shop that went through a bunch of different names). Petite Soeur seemed far more promising as it came from a pastry chef with an impressive record. As DCist wrote:
Petite Soeur’s shoppers have a tough choice as soon as they leave the shop: Painstakingly photograph all their picturesque treats, or devour them all as soon as they can. Located in a well-lit space with modern minimalist design on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, the chic confectionary specializes in hand-painted bonbons, gold accented chocolate bars, buttery sablé cookies, and dainty one-bite treats, like dark chocolate fudge and mango-passion fruit caramels. The newly opened shop is helmed by Ashleigh Pearson, a veteran of Thomas Keller’s Michelin 3-star Per Se in New York and Marcel’s by Robert Wiedmaier in D.C.
GM was fiddling with Photoshop the other day, trying to make some vintage NPS-style travel posters for Georgetown. (GM does weird things for fun). Anyhow, this is what he came up with. Hope you like them.
(If you’re a PBC member like GM, you might like this variation:)
This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is checking out another vintage postcard listing on Ebay. This particular one is of the Georgetown University Hospital chapel.
The card, which according to the listing comes from the 1940s, says on the back that the chapel is dedicated to the immaculate heart of Mary:
The chapel was host to at least one prominent event, the baptism of President elect John Kennedy’s son John, Jr. on December 8, 1960:
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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