Category Archives: Uncategorized

In order to prevent cars from even trying to enter the protected (and unfortunately named) “Green Zone” downtown between now and the inauguration tomorrow, the Secret Service has ordered the closure of Roosevelt, Memorial, and the 14th St. bridges. These closures are in effect as of this morning. Key Bridge is not closed, but for the sake of everyone, including you, please don’t try to use it!

The immediate issue is, of course, the fact that all the people who would try to drive across those other closed bridges would quickly overwhelm Key Bridge. (Granted, there shouldn’t be anyone driving their car downtown anyway, but surely many will stupidly try!) Continue reading →

Photo by Vincent.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• 1789 restaurant flying a Delaware flag (presumably) in honor of Joe Biden.
• Martin’s Tavern deservedly wins financial support from Barstool Fund.

Georgetown Waterfront

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM visits the oldest structure still standing in Georgetown and the day it was knocked down a few pegs, historically-wise.

The building, obviously, is the Old Stone House, which appears now pretty much exactly as it appeared in this article, dated July 5, 1932. The reason for the article was that the owners of the building decided to take down a plaque from the building claiming that it had served as George Washington’s headquarters while the city was being surveyed:

Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• History of Georgetown, circa 1820.
• Kojo Nnamdi announced his retirement yesterday from his WAMU radio show, which gives GM an excuse to repost his appearance on the show.

1600 block of Wisconsin Ave.

Quite the real estate listing hit the market yesterday. It is for one of the penthouse units in the Georgetown Ritz-Carlton Residences, and it would smash records if a buyer shows up.

The property is actually two different units, but it might as well be ten different units considering its size. It’s 6,400 square feet, spread over two different levels, including a massive terrace (and another terrace to boot).

Continue reading →

Photo by Sergey Galyonkin.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown students want the school to investigate whether any students participated in the insurrectionist riots at the Capitol.
• The Georgetown Safeway is the only location west of Rock Creek where Covid vaccines will be offered. (All the reservations have been taken as of now. More will be released next week.)

Montrose Park

If you like to track your exercise regime with the popular app Strava, you may have noticed from time to time that it gives your workouts some odd suggested names. For example, above is from a row that GM did a few months ago. (For those who don’t use the app, it basically uses sensors in your phone or other devices to track your workout, including where you went, how fast, etc. When you save each workout, it suggests a name for the workout, which is where the workout took place.) It suggested that GM’s row workout be called “Potomac Boat Club Building – Hamburgh”.

The first part makes sense. That’s were GM left from (and returned). But where the heck is Hamburgh?

Well it’s a former town founded by German immigrants in the 18th century. It was where Foggy Bottom is now (here’s a cool map from the Library of Congress showing the original town in red superimposed over the Washington street grid that eventually replaced it:

But why in the world would an app in the 21st century suggest you use a name of a long gone town of German immigrants? Continue reading →