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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Some business ins and outs.
• Events around Georgetown for Black History Month.

This week, in honor of Barnes and Noble returning to Georgetown, Washingtonian put out a list of former Georgetown establishments they’d love to see come back. In honor of that desire, for Georgetown Time Machine this week I thought I’d skim through my old pile of photos from 1993 and pluck out those with some of the more dearly departed shops. Enjoy!

Georgetown Cafe: For a certain vintage of GU student, this was the spot for late, late night eats. It closed up sometime in the late 2000s, I believe.

Peoples Drug: This pharmacy chain pre-dated the introduction of CVS taking over the whole market. I don’t know if it was better per se, but it at least was local.

The French Market: This high end market can be seen on the right above. Georgetown foodies who were lucky enough to know it, still rave about it.

Pied au Conchon: I’ve written about this place plenty. It was fairly long in the tooth by the time I got to Georgetown 20 plus years ago, but it was still a big loss.

Olsson’s: This local book store chain was still in great shape when I got here in the late 90s. But between big box stores and Amazon (and Napster) its demise came quickly.

There are surely other stores that were around in 1993 that are dearly missed, but sadly they are not in my photo collection. If you could bring back just one store from Georgetown’s past, what would you choose?

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• New store called Rails open. It sells clothes, not cheap liquor (as the name might suggest…)
• Nice summary of some significant real estate projects in the works.

In honor of Black History Month, I am re-running a piece from 2016 touching on the complicated relationship between preservation and the Black community in Georgetown.

Most people with even just a passing knowledge of Georgetown history are aware that at some point in the neighborhood’s past there was once a significant African American population that is for the most part not around anymore. Those with a slightly deeper knowledge will attest to the fact that Georgetown was in the 1930s the first neighborhood in DC to undergo a process that was later to be called gentrification. But what most people don’t realize is how much the current state of Georgetown was intentionally built upon that process.

Among the first qualities of Georgetown cited by people extolling its charms is the historic architecture of the neighborhood. And it’s true that Georgetown as a neighborhood is a virtual ark of American architecture from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries. One of the reasons the building stock has survived is that Georgetown entered a long economic lull in the late 19th century. It was an age of benign neglect which spared Georgetown from dramatic demolition and expansion that a more prosperous time would have inevitably brought. By the time interest grew again for living in Georgetown in the 1930s, the fog of nostalgia had descended. The first flickers of a wider preservationist movement (Colonial Williamsburg was formed in the 1920s to wide acclaim) sparked a drive to save Georgetown as it stood.

That, at least, is the sanitized version of how Georgetown became Georgetown.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Wall with sketchy past, lowers its price.
• Great collection of old photos of industrial Georgetown.

Last week the Old Georgetown Board met for its February session. It was the first time they met since early December due to the Board taking a break in January (as it does in August). One of the projects on the Board’s agenda is the proposed office-to-residential conversion of two buildings at the bottom of Thomas Jefferson St.

It was the fifth time the project was brought before the Board, and it won’t be the last. As reported by the Washington Business Journal, the Board refused to approve the designs, as it has on the previous four occasions. So instead of the project getting underway months ago, it remains in limbo because it has failed to satisfy the personal tastes of three presidential appointees.

So despite the fact that the economic future of DC hinges largely on office-to-residential projects proceeding, this one will just sit there until these mandarins are fully satisfied. But don’t bother making an economic argument for advancing this project. The Board has made it clear that that is completely beyond their remit to consider. As WBJ reported, the developer argued that trimming the project down to the size that the board members want would make the project not economically viable. The board’s secretary responded to that argument:

Thomas Luebke, the CFA’s secretary, noted in the meeting economics aren’t considered by the OGB, which is charged under the federal law with preserving the historic fabric of the city’s oldest neighborhood.

“It’s not our concern about cost or any of these other issues,” Luebke said. “Unfortunately we can’t actually, literally consider or really honestly accommodate.”

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• A report from last week’s ANC meeting.
• Old Georgetown Board still not approving proposed office-to-residential conversion.

This is your Northwest Georgetown February ANC update!

SNOW

It finally snowed again! It’s been several years since we’ve had significant accumulation. I hope everyone got out and enjoyed it while it lasted. We enjoyed hitting a few of our favorite sledding hills.

While I’m writing this, it’s a balmy 60 degrees out. And maybe that will spell the end of snow for the season. But hopefully not! And should we get more snow accumulation I wanted to remind everyone about how to approach keeping the sidewalks safe and open.

If you are able, DC law mandates that the sidewalk outside your house be cleared within 8 hours of the end of a snowfall. If you live on a corner lot, lucky you! But that also means you have to clear the whole sidewalk around your house, not just the front.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• More information on the new Georgetown Hospital wing.
• Some retail updates.

Here are some retail updates drawn from recent permit filings:

Molteni & C

An expensive furniture shop is coming to 3306 M St. The company, Molteni & C, is nothing new for Cady’s Alley, which has long focused on such high end home wares.

Since Design Within Reach moved out of this particular storefront, it has struggled to find a long term tenant. We’ll see if this one sticks.

Catbird

The former Lush store at 3066 M St. is getting a store called Catbird. Given the trends and the name, I was pretty certain this would be some sort of a women’s athleisurewear store, but turns out it’s a jewelry store. Li,e many new shops in Georgetown, Catbird is yet another DTC store looking to expand into bricks and mortar. They’re due to open early February.