This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is back to Boyd’s Directory to highlight another ad. This time it’s an ad for Jacob Ramsburg & Sons from the 1870 directory.
The firm sold gloves from its location at 105 High Street. That was the left side of what’s now Wisconsin Ave., somewhere between N and O St. The firm also dealt in wool and “extra-fine Virginia sumac”. The later is a spice made from ground up berries from a sumac tree.
Ramsburg was born in 1811 in Frederick, Maryland. He appears to have lived above his shop, along with the “and sons” part of the name. Specifically it was Valerius Elias Ramsburg and Cornelius Stille Ramsburg.
This month, the Citizens Association of Georgetown is hosting a meeting to discuss one of the essential works on Georgetown’s history: Black Georgetown Rememered. The book, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, tells the story of the Black community in Georgetown, from the town’s founding in 1751 through the the historical preservation-driven gentrification of the mid-twentieth century that left the community devastated. It is a book that anyone hoping to understand the neighborhood deeper than on a superficial level must read.
The event will bring together members of the community to discuss the book and their stories. It will be held Feb 9th via Zoom. Register here.
Many, many moons ago, GM reported that Smoothie King was going to occupy the former Little Tavern space on the northeast corner of N and Wisconsin. That clearly never came to pass (a fast casual restaurant called Dig is still slated to finally open there this year). Well now it appears that his royal highness of smoothies is finally arriving: Smoothie King is opening in the former Starbucks space at 3122 M St.
The previous (ultimately erroneous) reporting came from a reliable source. Either they were just wrong or the deal fell through. This reporting comes by way of the ANC agenda, which reports that Smoothie King is applying for signage approval. So it’s very likely to be correct.
Although not over at all, the Omicron wave that hit DC starting last December is definitely in retreat. Case numbers are down 52% from the peak on January 4th. If things continue, we should be back down to pre-Omicron numbers in a matter of a few weeks.
So while the wave is not completely in the rear view mirror, it’s well enough along that we can compare how Georgetown as a neighborhood did compared with the rest of the city. And the answer is pretty well.
Here’s a chart from DCcovid.com showing how Georgetown’s two sub-neighborhoods (Georgetown and Georgetown East) did compared with all other DC neighborhoods (all the other neighborhoods are represented by the gray lines):
Georgetown (i.e. west Georgetown) recorded among the lowest cases of any DC neighborhood through the end of December into early January. Not surprisingly when the students returned the numbers jumped. But even then, it remained in the lower half of neighborhoods. East Georgetown (which for this purpose includes parts of west Dupont) was higher throughout, but still well below the median neighborhood.
Several factors probably contributed to this result. Georgetown has a high vaccination level and probably has relatively few residents who work in-person in a high risk environment. Moreover, anecdotally, it appears that residents have been quick to re-mask up, using higher grade masks. In either event, keep it up!
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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