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1600 block of 32nd St.

Summer is here, and this is going to be rough.

Last year, GM extolled the virtues of Georgetown in August, despite the obvious drawbacks:

The streets are empty. You can park your car like it’s a suburb in the 60s. The pools are empty because the interns left. The sidewalks are empty because even tourists have better sense than to visit DC in the summer.

Despite the stifling, turgid air, you can breathe. You can walk into a restaurant at 7:00 on a Friday and get a seat. You can even walk on M St. on a weekend.

And like spring, it is great because it is brief. We don’t ultimately love Georgetown because it’s empty, but because it’s decidedly not. That restaurant walking you to a table would be out of business if it were like that year round. Those streets without parking in September mean more people coming and keeping our thriving businesses thriving. Quiet is nice, but too much is boring.

Knowing August is fleeting is the best way to enjoy it. So enjoy it, it’s already later than you think.

Sadly, the conditions that made Georgetown tolerable–even desirable–in August will be largely gone this year. Parking may continue to be easy, but we’ve got nowhere to drive home from. The pools might eventually open, but only for swimming laps. Restaurants are open, but are you really ready to return to them? Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Paul Bakery appears to have permanently closed.
• GU still leaving their students up in the air about the fall.

The Key Bridge

Photo by John Weiss.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• While GU has moved its School of Continuing Studies to virtual for the Fall, it still hasn’t ruled out opening the main campus.
• This is an old article, but GM just found it: what is the real story behind the gun-barrel fence?

3200 block of Volta Pl.

It seems like a million years ago, but it was only January (or approximately 500,000 years ago [and it was 400,000 years ago when GM already used this joke]) when Call Your Mother received a positive vote from the Board of Zoning Adjustment, which would let it open in Georgetown at O and 35th. As GM warned at the time, due to the fact that that BZA awarded party status to a neighbor–Melinda Roth–at the last minute, it would need to issue a formal order for the vote to take effect. And at best that would take three months.

Well a pandemic happened in the meantime, and yet still the order was finally issued last week, after just six months. Cheers to the hardworking DC employees!

GM reached out to Call Your Mother to see whether they would open now, and they responded that they hoped to soon. The restaurant already has experience dealing with the current environment, with their original Park View location and a new Capitol Hill location being open. Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown Butcher (which is awesome, by the way) makes national news for its perseverance in the face of the worst timing in the world. GM highly recommends you check them out! You can peruse their offerings online, order them, and swing right over to pick them up.
• Walking tours seem like the type of thing that could safely restart.

3200 block of Volta Place

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM is back with another amazing aerial photo from the National Archives. This one is of Georgetown University and western Georgetown from the 20s or the very early 30s. And the details are again quite amazing.

Healy Hall and the buildings to its west are largely the same as they are today, but beyond that the campus is totally different. Copley and White-Gravenor Halls weren’t yet built (they were built in 1932 and 1933, respectively). And where they would end up held a football and baseball stadium:

Speaking of sports, where Lauinger Library is was once a couple tennis courts:

Looking beyond the campus, you can see west Georgetown in incredible detail. If you happen to live on those blocks, there’s a decent chance that this photo has a very clear photo of your house in much earlier days. (Click the photo at the top to see a full resolution version). Go ahead and poke around. Continue reading →