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1300 block of 33rd St.

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM visits Water St. below the Whitehurst Freeway.

This is a fairly straightforward edition. The date is crystal clear from the photo itself, which states that it’s from July 11, 1991. The photo was taken in conjunction with a rehabilitation project that was performed on the Whitehurst. (Another such rehab project would be performed in the late 90s).

There’s not a lot that’s particularly striking about this photo except the obvious. Namely, the giant parking lot which once stood where a the Georgetown Waterfront Park now is.

The photo is taken from approximately the intersection with Potomac and Water. This is what it looks like today:

As other photos from the same set indicate, there were still railroad tracks down the center of Water St. and K St. at this point: Continue reading →

Photo by Augie Ray.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Descendants of people enslaved by Georgetown University press for reparations.
• A nice summation of what the opening of an Amazon bookstore “means”.

C & O Canal

The already precarious M St. dining scene took a sizable blow over the past month as three different restaurants closed. The decline of restaurants is a long term trend that GM has been documenting for a while. While the recent closures are largely consistent with this long term trend, it is isolated along the eastern end, which has up till now been somewhat more resilient.

The closures (first reported by the Georgetowner) are Unum, Maxime’s (next door) and Pier 2934 (across the street). Unum was a well regarded, if not particularly high profile, restaurant that replaced Mendocino, another relatively well regarded restaurant which closed in 2012. (Mendocino itself replaced the beloved Geppetto’s Pizza, which was the highlight of GM’s family trip to DC in 1986:

Maxime’s replaced the short-lived Rialto, which itself replaced the long-standing Guard’s. Pier 2934 was a reinvention of its predecessor Little Viet Garden as a cajun crab house. This format is apparently popular for Vietnamese restaurants in the suburbs, but this is the second attempt at it in Georgetown that ended in closure (Yummi Crawfish was the other). Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Bridge Street Books is becoming a non-profit, which should ensure it lasts well into the future. (But Georgetowner, there are other books stores in Georgetown! Don’t forget the Lantern Bookshop!)
• The new game room in the basement of the Pizzeria Paradiso is open.

3200 block of M St.

This week for Know Your Trees, GM is visiting the Japanese zelkova. The zelkova is a member of the elm family (it is sometimes referred to as a Japanese elm), and as such received a brief mention in GM’s discussion on elms back in September. But they are a lovely tree, and deserve to be discussed in their own article too. Continue reading →

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• 1065 Wisconsin Ave., which most recently hosted Nadeau furniture, will become a South Moon Under. Blah.
• Is the Dean and Deluca in trouble?

3200 block of M St.