Category Archives: Uncategorized

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Blues Alley already reopened! Yay!
• Community meeting scheduled for November 7th at Hardy at 6:30 pm to discuss the future of Jelleff rec center renovations.

Montrose Park

The ANC meets for its November session tonight at 6:30 pm. The meeting is accessible here via Zoom. The agenda has some interesting nuggets, although they won’t actually get discussed during the meeting.

For instance, the agenda reveals that the hot new coffee shop, Blank Street Coffee, is coming to the Eastbanc development of the former Zara building at Wisconsin and Prospect. The chain has already opened two spots in DC, in Dupont and the Wharf. The Georgetown location will hardly be the last. It’s understandable to get all these new, hot coffee shops mixed up. There was the pour-over one (Blue Bottle) and the Australian one (Bluestone Lane). This one appears to try to distinguish itself by being high quality but cheap. You be the judge.

Additionally, the fashion brand Scotch and Soda will be making its return to Georgetown. The store was briefly located at 3209 M St. in the early part of last decade. This go around it will be located at 1214 Wisconsin Ave., which is the small space just south of El Centro. This had a hat store for a while until a fire gutted the building. Then it was the temporary space for Soulier Shoes, while that shop renovated its space further up Wisconsin Ave.

During the meeting itself, the most interesting discussion may come with regards to the Jelleff Rec Center proposed renovation. The city has dedicate money for the project but is dragging its feet in actually moving it forward. The ANC will consider a resolution pressuring the city to get the project back on track.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Early voting has begun! You can vote in person at the Georgetown library through to Sunday between 8:30 AM and 7:00 PM each day. On Election Day, Hardy Middle School is Georgetown’s voting location (although you can vote at any center throughout the city). If you live in northwest Georgetown, please vote for Christopher “Topher” Mathews for ANC!!!!
• Did you know that GU has its own farmers market?

3000 block of R St.

Happy Halloween! GM would like to celebrate by reprinting a Georgetown ghost story as told by Tim Krepp in his fantastic Ghosts of Georgetown (which you should buy!):

Good morning Georgetown and Happy Halloween! Here’s the latest:

• Chicken Pot Pieathon returns! Get your orders in now!
• Great behind the scene photo from the filming of the Exorcist on the GU campus.

3000 block of R St.

News Tuesday night of a fire at Blues Alley got GM thinking about other fires throughout Georgetown’s history. And it doesn’t take a lot of effort to remember some of them, because there have been a bunch of significant ones! Here are just a small sampling of the infernos that have raged in the neighborhood:

Georgetown Library

The most recent notable fire surely was the August 2007 conflagration that struck the Georgetown neighborhood library. It was suspected to have been started by workers using heat guns to remove paint during renovations. (Oddly the historic Eastern Market also was gutted by fire the exact same day.)

If it weren’t for the quick thinking of Jerry McCoy at the Peabody Room, a whole treasure trove of Georgetown history would have been destroyed by the fire. That’s because McCoy thought to bring in a document freezer truck from the Library of Congress to safely protect the documents that were drenched by the fire hoses.

It took years of construction, but the renewed library opened October 2010 with a Peabody Room still full of priceless Georgetown history.

Photo by Sidney Lawrence.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Application to convert 30th St. mansion into hotel dropped.
• Update on the Blues Alley fire.