The Georgetown Metropolitan

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Longtime Georgetown antique dealer, Marston Luce, has passed away.
• How a government program helped to get Petite Soeur off the ground.

Many, many moons ago, GM reported that Smoothie King was going to occupy the former Little Tavern space on the northeast corner of N and Wisconsin. That clearly never came to pass (a fast casual restaurant called Dig is still slated to finally open there this year). Well now it appears that his royal highness of smoothies is finally arriving: Smoothie King is opening in the former Starbucks space at 3122 M St.

The previous (ultimately erroneous) reporting came from a reliable source. Either they were just wrong or the deal fell through. This reporting comes by way of the ANC agenda, which reports that Smoothie King is applying for signage approval. So it’s very likely to be correct.

Although not over at all, the Omicron wave that hit DC starting last December is definitely in retreat. Case numbers are down 52% from the peak on January 4th. If things continue, we should be back down to pre-Omicron numbers in a matter of a few weeks.

So while the wave is not completely in the rear view mirror, it’s well enough along that we can compare how Georgetown as a neighborhood did compared with the rest of the city. And the answer is pretty well.

Here’s a chart from DCcovid.com showing how Georgetown’s two sub-neighborhoods (Georgetown and Georgetown East) did compared with all other DC neighborhoods (all the other neighborhoods are represented by the gray lines):

Georgetown (i.e. west Georgetown) recorded among the lowest cases of any DC neighborhood through the end of December into early January. Not surprisingly when the students returned the numbers jumped. But even then, it remained in the lower half of neighborhoods. East Georgetown (which for this purpose includes parts of west Dupont) was higher throughout, but still well below the median neighborhood.

Several factors probably contributed to this result. Georgetown has a high vaccination level and probably has relatively few residents who work in-person in a high risk environment. Moreover, anecdotally, it appears that residents have been quick to re-mask up, using higher grade masks. In either event, keep it up!

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Omicron may be fading, but GU still is recording over 100 new cases a week.
• Takeout Tuesday returns with call to buy lunch from Chaia or Peacock today!

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is exploring a fascinating photo that came to his attention care of the fantastic Old Time DC account (which you should follow if you love DC historical photos!) The photo shows the old Aqueduct Bridge that once stood between Georgetown and what then a rural part of Alexandria County.

The date of the photo is approximately 1860, which makes it a rather early photo of any part of Georgetown. And the best part is how it clearly shows the aqueduct bridge operating as its name suggests.

If you want a deep dive into the bridge’s history, read this fantastic article. But here’s a shorter version. The C&O Canal was partially constructed and opened by 1830. This brought a great deal of shipping to the Georgetown waterfront for transfer to ocean going ships. The port of Alexandria was cut out of this model, as it didn’t make sense to transfer goods from the canal to a river boat at Georgetown, only to transfer to another boat at Alexandria. So Alexandria lobbied to create a direct access from the C&O canal to Alexandria.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU back to in-person learning by the end of the month.
• Absolutely stunning mansion on 30th St. finally sells.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Absolutely wild story of alleged jewel theft of a deceased Georgetown socialite by her companion.
• Georgetown lost 790 people in last year’s census count versus the 2010 count. GM guess it’s more a case of undercount than true population decline.