A long way back I used to run an occasional series where I’d simply ask the question: Why Not? Like, “Why Not Have a Waterfront Ice Skating Rink?” (that one actually partially led to the creation of the rink we still have). With Fourth of July later this week, I’d like to re-run my call for our own holiday parade, if not exactly a July Fourth one. What do you think?:
As part of my occasional Why Not series, today I ponder this: Why Not hold parades in Georgetown?
This thought occurred to me when I took in the Alexandria Scottish Christmas parade in Old Town last December. This parade–along with the equally Celtic St. Patrick’s Day Parade–always brings the best out of the Alexandria community. The route is lined, often several rows deep, with cheerful residents and visitors. The homeowners get into the spirit by decorating their houses with the St. Andrews flag and donning kilts. And following the parade, the shops are mobbed with people eager to knock a few names off their Christmas gift list.
The parades always leave me a little bittersweet. Does Georgetown lack the sort of community spirit that Old Town has? Or does it lack the opportunity to express it?
What I particularly like about the Old Town parade is that it spends most of its route winding through the quaint residential streets. Perhaps that’s why the residents get so into it, they’ve got no choice.
So why not bring that opportunity to Georgetown with a parade of its own?
For it to be a true community event, I think they would also have to wind their way through the sidestreets. This has the added benefit of not requiring the closure of arteries like M St. or Wisconsin Ave.
The Old Town parade last year was just .9 miles. I figure Georgetown need not be quite as long (at least not at first). Here’s a simple route I mocked up:
The parade would start at Visitation, in order to use the parking lot to stage the floats and bands, etc. The route would go down 35th to Prospect, over to 34th, up to O St. There it would wind it’s way down to Hyde-Addison, where the parade would end at the playground.
I asked around and could identify only one community parade in recent memory. In 2001, there was a parade to celebrate the neighborhood’s 150th250th anniversary. This parade, however shut down at least Wisconsin Ave.
Lots of boring questions come to mind, like how to organize it and how to address complaints about parking etc. But a more fun question pushes those aside: what should the parade be about? Christmas, St. Patrick’s and the Fourth of July already have stiff competition, so those wouldn’t be a good idea.
But how about Halloween? Georgetowners have been getting more and more into Halloween in recent years. It used to be just Nancy Taylor Bubes going over the top, but now she’s got plenty of company. So the spirit is already there. And the parade could include neighborhood kids showing off their costumes. There could even be a Halloween party at Hyde at the end! This is a better idea the more I think about it.
Hello and welcome to your July Northwest Georgetown ANC update!
I just spent a week in Portugal so I am just getting back up to speed, and as a result this update may be a bit briefer than usual. But here goes:
Bus Overhaul Complete
The long discussed bus overhaul has finally come as of today, June 29th. I have been trying to alert people to the changes for a while now, and hopefully those that rely on the bus are already up to speed. But there will certainly be some that only just find out when they walk up to a bus stop. Here are a couple links that should help:
The changes will surely be bumpy with unanticipated (and anticipated) difficulties. There is still a great deal of unfortunate service cuts in the new system, but hopefully the impact will not be as bad as feared.
New Boathouse Coming
This is not in my ANC district, but may interest my constituents regardless: after decades of discussions, Georgetown University is finally taking concrete steps towards constructing its own boathouse along the Potomac.
If approved, it would occupy the lot directly west of Key Bridge (where the public rentals of Key Bridge Boathouse currently take place). GU is gaining access to this property by exchanging a parcel it owns further up the river along the Capital Crescent Trail.
Here is what the boathouse could look like:
If approved, this boathouse will transform the waterfront, as well as this end of Water Street. We already have many issues involving how drivers come down this block. Many are mislead by their GPS units which incorrectly think the cars are on the Whitehurst Freeway. They get to the Capital Crescent trailhead and realize they can’t go further. They then do a dangerous u-turn right where people are exiting the trail and zoom off back east in frustration. Limiting this is already something we need to do. The boathouse and the new hotel will make that worse. That’s not a reason to not approve the boathouse, but it will put the problem in sharper focus.
Summer Break
The ANC has no meeting in August, so I will be skipping an August update. But I will continue to be reachable at 2e02@anc.dc.gov. Have a great summer!
The monthly OGB agenda again provides us with a peek at some new stores on the horizon.
J Crew
This first one is not a surprise, as word was already out that this move was coming. But these plans appear to confirm that the recently closed J Crew is reopening in the old Brooks Brothers building at 30th and M:
As someone whose wardrobe is basically almost all J Crew, this news comes as a relief to me.
Dutch Darlings
A stroopwafel and sweets store named Dutch Darlings is coming to 1003 Wisconsin Ave:
The store is a local creation and this is their first brick and mortar location. Congrats and welcome!
Hästens
Finally a store called Hästens is coming to 1510 Wisconsin Ave.:
As I reported last week, Georgetown University is finally moving forward with plans to build a boathouse after decades of efforts. The school submitted its design concept to the Old Georgetown Board, which became publicly available over the weekend.
You can see a 3D rendering above,which show that the boathouse will have a traditional look, similar to the Potomac Boat Club on the left (that building was constructed in 1908, and is the club’s third location believe it or not). GU’s building is proposed to have a granite facade, echoing the academic buildings up on the hilltop.
Here’s a closer rendering:
This image shows the public dock that will also be a part of the proposal. The ramp on the right down to the small dock will be available to the public to put in their own canoes, kayaks and paddle boards. (The Key Bridge Boathouse, which offers boat rentals and storage, will be relocated just up the river past the aqueduct abutment. It will occupy the former location of Dempsey’s boathouse, which similarly offered public rentals in the first half of of last century).
This is what GU’s boathouse could look like from Water Street:
The interior will match the layout of similar boathouses. The first floor will house the shells and other equipment. The second will have locker rooms, meeting rooms and and central multi-purpose room opening onto to an ample porch.
This space will surely be used by the school for functions, but most of the time it will likely serve the same purpose that a similar ball room at the Potomac Boat Club does: a place for rowing machines.
If approved, this will genuinely be a breathtaking facility and surely a new crown jewel of the school.
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington will be holding a fundraiser BBQ at Jelleff on June 20th from 5 to 8 pm. Please come on out a support a great organization that provides critically necessary programs for DC youth. Buy tickets here.
The Boys and Girls Club has operated Jelleff throughout its entire existence. The club constructed the facilities in the early 50s and ran its programs there ever since. The facilities themselves were sold to the city in 2009 and the club continued to operate there under a contract. The city provides much of the funding that goes towards the clubs after-school programs, but as the flyer below demonstrates, the funding is not entirely enough to cover the needs. That’s were private fundraising comes in:
Please come out to the BBQ and support a great cause!
Yesterday, Georgetown University and the city announced a land swap deal that will enable the school to build its own boathouse for the first time. The deal has been literally decades in the making, and still has a few hurdles to jump (or maybe bouys to pass?) before it will come to fruition. But it’s still a milestone day for the school and the greater DC rowing community.
The school published this page giving some details of the deal. But in short, the proposal is this: the school will relinquish a parcel of land it owns along the Capital Crescent Trail. In exchange, the school will be allowed to build a new boathouse on the parcel of land currently occupied by the Key Bridge Boathouse. The public will have access by way of the boat house to a dock to put in with canoes, kayaks, etc. Key Bridge Boathouse will move its public rental services just up the river to the grassy area just past the old Aqueduct abutment.
I’ve seen renderings of the proposed boathouse, and it is impressive. It is approximately the size of the historic Potomac Boat Club just up the shore. It has a granite facade, in line with the school’s buildings on campus.
By building its own facilities, GU will now be able to vacate Thompson’s Boat House, which will create much needed space for the high school and college programs that also use Thompson’s.
To get a sense for the challenges that GU had to get through to reach this point, as well as some of the challenges that may remain, check out this excellent article by the Hoya twenty years ago.
Given my bend towards history the bit I’ll add is to give some images of the school’s former make-shift boathouses. As described in GU’s announcement, the rowing team operated out of a former athletic club around 1900. That was the Columbia Athletic Club, which once stood at the foot of 32nd St. (which is now Wisconsin Ave.):
Here it is seen from up 32nd St:
According to an exhibit at GU on its rowing history:
The boathouse, located at the foot of 32nd Street on government property, was purchased from the Columbia Athletic Club in the spring of 1901. According to the College Journal, it consisted of three rooms – the boat room, ball room and locker room. The boat room had ample space for the six eight-oared, five four-oared, one centipede, four out-riggers, two four-oared, and two gunwale boats, together with a fifty-foot ten oared barge. Georgetown used this boathouse until July 1904 when it was razed.
The GU website also discusses how the team temporarily used a floating boathouse. I covered this oddity in 2020, but this is what it looked like:
The boathouse was actually originally used by an inventor who was trying to beat the Wright Bros. at being the first to flight. He lost out and as a result the barge ended up with the Georgetown rowing team instead of the Smithsonian. Sadly it sunk a year later.
Hopefully GU’s new boathouse will not be similarly cursed!
Spring is here. and while it has been an unusually wet and cold one, pretty soon our street trees will get thirsty. And once they do, it is critical for residents to water our street trees. So now is the time to make plans for it, especially if you have a young tree on the sidewalk in front of your house or apartment. This is especially true if it was newly planted this year. The basic goal you should have is to water young trees at least once a week, so long as you get a good 20-25 gallons of water. If you can’t water the new trees, try to find a neighbor who can.
The preferred watering device is the ooze tube (the bags that go around the bottom of the trees). You can differentiate them from the not-preferred gator bags because the gator bags have zippers. (They’re not preferred because they can create an unhealthy environment around the trunk and you have to remove them after each use.) With the ooze tube you can just fill it up and let it go.
If you don’t have an ooze tube, you can just leave a hose trickling into the tree box for 30 minutes to an hour.
Once a tree is mature, you can stop watering it. By then the roots are so spread out under the sidewalk that it doesn’t need your help anymore (although during any particularly dry periods, it can’t hurt to water it). At what point does a tree become “mature”? That depends on the tree. It’s better safe than sorry so you might as well do it for the first eight years or so.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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