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Photo by Angela N.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• An attempt at self-policing from students re: Covid.
• Citizens Association of Georgetown roles out a new website.

Hey, just your weekly reminder that I’m running for ANC! If you’re in my SMD, you’ll soon be graced with this in your mailbox! 

1800 block of Wisconsin Ave.

The ANC will meet (virtually) for its October meeting next Monday at 6:30 pm (link here). On the agenda is GM’s old, personal enemy: the ginkgo.

Last year, several residents in east Georgetown tried to get the city to cut down several mature female ginkgo trees. As anyone who walks on 27th st. in the fall can tell you, the trees drop some seriously odorous berries (actually they’re seeds) that smell like a mix of dog poop and vomit. Spraying can reduce the seed growth, but only so much. Cutting them down would obviously end the problem, but it would come at a serious cost. The uproar stopped the move to get the trees cut down, but the residents are still seeking solutions to the seed problem, which will be addressed by the ANC.

Also on the agenda are two significant liquor license applications. The first is for the new Apéro that GM discussed yesterday. They are seeking a new license, and will likely run into some challenges using the large patio attached to the property. The second is the transfer of the liquor store license from Logan Circle Liquors to 1515 Wisconsin Ave. that GM discussed last month. Both licenses will likely be protested, which will move the process towards settlement agreement negotiations.

Here is the rest of the agenda.

Photo by Vincent.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Profile of Georgetown BID CEO, Joe Sternlieb.
• Georgetown students will be recreating the War of the Worlds radio drama.

1200 block of 33rd St.

The Washington City Paper reported yesterday that a new bar/restaurant is coming to Georgetown called Apéro. It will takeover 2622 P St. And while Georgetown may have started to get away from its reputation for being only for rich people in the last couple years, this will surely set us back a bit: the bar’s specialty will be champagne and caviar.

As the City Paper writes:

Apéro’s food selection will include small bites like “little fried things” and some salads. Johnson, who as a culinary background, will execute the menu. Customers will be able to add caviar to any dish or order at least five varieties of caviar on its own.

“It’s a nice place for everybody to come grab a snack and a drink,” Benchimol says. “It sounds pretentious because of the Champagne and caviar, but it’ll be very approachable and still elegant. I want people to learn more about eclectic wines and grower Champagnes not from the big-name houses. It’s not, ‘Come in and spend $300.’”

Indeed.

This space has seen quite a lot of changes over the years. It used to be a church-owned thrift store. Then it was converted into the After Peacock Room, an artistically inspired restaurant, but that closed fairly quickly. It was later turned into 2622, a coffee house/salon (which is about the best use for the space in GM’s opinion). But that recently closed. Will a high-end restaurant succeed here? Time will tell.

Photo by Geoff Linvingston.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Booemonger’s facing the prospect of a liquor license suspension.
• Could the coronavirus make neighborhoods like Georgetown more affordable?

1000 block of 33rd St.

Many readers are aware that most streets in Georgetown used to have names different from their current ones. In fact, GM has long wished the city would erect some mementoes to the old names on the streetposts themselves. But one thing GM has only recently began to wonder is this: where did those names come from?

A bit of history first.

Georgetown was established as a new town in 1751 in the colony of Maryland. Upon being established, the first streets and building lots were laid out. This is the first map of Georgetown (actually, it appears to be a 19th century recreation of the original map):

There were only a handful of street names:

• What is now M St., west of Wisconsin Ave., was called Falls St.
• M St., east of Wisconsin Ave., was called Bridge St.
• Wisconsin Ave., north of M St., was called High St.
• Wisconsin Ave., south of M St., was called Water St.
• Confusingly, Water St. was called West Landing and Keys
• Roughly where K St. is now was called Wapping
• 33rd St., south of M St., was called Duck Lane
• 33rd St., north of M St., was called West Lane
• 31st St., south of M St., was called Fishing Lane
• 31st St., north of M St., was called East Lane (each of these “lanes” were probably closer to alleys than streets)

After a series of land additions through the second half of the 18th century, the streets of Georgetown took the form that they largely still have:

This 1814 map shows a complete street grid for the neighborhood, and contains the street names that would stick around until the street renaming in  1879. (The names were changed to help incorporate Georgetown with the rest of the District of Columbia, although, to be honest, geography continued to make that incorporation pretty attenuated.)

Some of the streets didn’t quite line up with the Washington street naming convention, and so the old names remained. That’s why we still have Dumbarton, Olive and Prospect, for example. But most were changed.

This is a story that GM has been familiar with for quite some time. But it was only recently that he began to wonder, “but wait, why were the old streets named the way they were?”

Some appear, at least at first, to be fairly self-evident. Bridge St. was literally the street that led to a bridge over Rock Creek. And Market St. led to the Georgetown Market (which was near the current Georgetown market building, i.e. the former Dean and Deluca). Continue reading →

Photo by Vincent.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Ten more members of the GU community test positive for Covid.
• As the weather chills, the new streateries are starting to get help from the city to cozy up.