The Georgetown Metropolitan

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is again passing on an amazing shot unearthed by the great Old Time DC account (you should follow them!). It’s taken from the back of Oak Hill Cemetery looking down to Rock Creek circa 1875.

The photo is sort of 3D. It is one half of a stereoview shot. An accompanying shot was taken a few inched to one side of this one using a camera like this:

The two prints could be viewed simultaneously using a special viewer and the combined effect was to give the viewer a 3D view of the scene. If you ever used a Viewmaster as a kid, you can remember the experience. This technology was the first steps towards the modern 3D movies we have today (which seem to wax and wane in popularity over the years).

This particular photo was taken by William Moody Chase, a longtime resident of Baltimore. A Civil War vet, he made a career out of touring the mid-Atlantic taking stereoviews of dramatic scenery, like this one. He operated from the end of the war until 1895 and published over 2,000 prints.

The shot itself is quite striking as it shows Rock Creek in a much different state to the one it has today. Of course the intrusive highway is not present. But beyond that the most notable difference is that there was a dam up river a bit:

It almost appears as if there is a road that travels down to and across the dam, which would not be suprising. This was long before the great bridges started to span Rock Creek. Rather than even building a small bridge, it was often easier to just create a spot where a wagon could ford the river, barring any flooding. (Cars crossed Rock Creek by fording into the late 20th century.)

That said, this 1861 topographical map doesn’t show a road crossing at this spot:

This map shows fords elsewhere, so it’s safe to assume that there wasn’t one here, at least not in 1861.

Oak Hill Cemetery was completed in 1853, so it was several decades old by the time this photo was taken. (If you’re interested in the cemetery in the time of the Civil War, GM highly recommends the bizarrely fascinating novel Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.)

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Graham Hotel is changing owners.
• GU significantly cutting back the student-led GERMS ambulance service.

A new mural has been painted on the north side of the Los Cuates building (1564 Wisconsin). It honors the indigenous Wixárika people of the southwest United States and Mexico. The artist, Victor “Marka27” Quinonez, described the inspiration for the mural in an Instagram post:

Featured in this mural is an indigenous Wixárika Elder with ingredients used in many native cultures, blue maiz and guajillo peppers…The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

The mural was erected as part of the city’s Murals DC program, which has facilitated a boom of similarly artistic murals around DC. This wall had previously sported a more subtle painting of a ginger flower in connection with the former Red Ginger restaurant that occupied the building before Los Cuates. This new mural continues that connection between the art, culture and the cuisine.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• CAG is hosting a “Welcome Back Georgetown” community picnic this Sunday at Rose Park from 4-7pm.
• GU’s Covid positive test rates ticked up this week. There were 47 positive results this week, compared with 17 last week.

The Friends of Volta Park are bringing back their Fall Festival this October 2nd. The event (previously known as Volta Park Day) will feature live music, food, carnival games, a bounce house, face painting and more. It will run in the park from 11 am to 2 pm.

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown cancelled its Homecoming festivities.
• Somebody is egging pedestrians in west Georgetown.

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM is exploring a fantastic photo of Jack’s Boathouse shortly after it first opened. The photo comes courtesy of the fantastic Old Time DC and dates to 1945.

Jack’s Boathouse was created that same year by John “Jack” Baxter, who had been a DC police officer for 11 years prior. From his 1999 obituary:

Mr. Baxter had been a D.C. policeman for 11 years in 1945 when he decided to go into the boating business. His primary beat was Georgetown below M Street, and he kept a canoe hidden along the riverfront. As a boy he had worked at Capt. Julius Wanner’s boathouse, and he knew his way around the neighborhood.

“I liked being on the waterfront. I’d started building boats down here, and the boat business began making so much money that I couldn’t see staying on the police force,” he told The Washington Post in 1995, 50 years after he established Jack’s Boathouse.

With six rowboats that he built himself, Mr. Baxter opened for business, just as World War II in Europe was drawing to a close. The charge was $2 a day. A half century later the rowboat fleet would be augmented by more than two dozen canoes and several motor craft, and the fees would rise to $10 an hour or $25 a day.

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