The Georgetown Metropolitan

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM is back with another amazing aerial photo from the National Archives. This one is of Georgetown University and western Georgetown from the 20s or the very early 30s. And the details are again quite amazing.

Healy Hall and the buildings to its west are largely the same as they are today, but beyond that the campus is totally different. Copley and White-Gravenor Halls weren’t yet built (they were built in 1932 and 1933, respectively). And where they would end up held a football and baseball stadium:

Speaking of sports, where Lauinger Library is was once a couple tennis courts:

Looking beyond the campus, you can see west Georgetown in incredible detail. If you happen to live on those blocks, there’s a decent chance that this photo has a very clear photo of your house in much earlier days. (Click the photo at the top to see a full resolution version). Go ahead and poke around. Continue reading →

Photo by Matt Kieffer.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• DC is entering Phase II of the reopening, with Georgetown possibly poised to be one of the areas most affected. Will you be trying out new (old) things?
• And yet the city has done nothing to make the sidewalks and streets safer in Georgetown. People will be returning to sidewalks just as tight as they were before, and drivers will roar back to make our streets even more dangerous than ever.

Georgetown Waterfront Park

A masked intruder crawled into GM’s garden early Saturday morning to sleep one off. GM first noticed the intruder about noon, curled up between GM’s bike shed and his deck. About all that was visible was his or her furry striped tail.

It was, of course, a raccoon.

This immediately alarmed GM. While it was good that the raccoon was asleep instead of awake during the day (a classic sign of rabies) it was nonetheless unusual for a raccoon to sleep so close to humans. Out of an abundance of caution, GM called Animal Control, but they weren’t alarmed. They said to let it sleep, or maybe make some noise to get it to move. GM decided to just let it sleep for a while.

But after about five hours, it was still asleep, and GM wanted to get out some bikes. After a bunch of noise didn’t seem to get the raccoon to leave, GM placed another call to Animal Control. They agreed to come out and take look. A half hour later an officer arrived. She came out back, poked the raccoon, and decided that it was harmless. This was mostly because the raccoon scurried away after being rudely poked. She stated that it was a juvenile raccoon just looking for a place to sleep and that it would probably leave at night. Continue reading →

Photo by Matt Kieffer.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Kevin Plank finally sold his Georgetown house, a “steal” just under $18 million.
• GM hears the Washington Sports Club is closing its Georgetown location permanently.

1500 block of Wisconsin Ave.

Just two weeks after several nights of looting led to the widespread boarding up of storefronts around Georgetown, the plywood is starting to come down.

Unsurprisingly, restaurants are taking the lead. Seeing as they are few of the businesses permitted to be open in the first place, it makes sense that they would move first. But other non-restaurants have also taken steps towards normalcy:

Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU considering everything from a fully virtual fall to one where all the students are back in DC.
• (Totally unscientific) poll finds more people missing McFadden’s than Chadwick’s. What is wrong with you people? (That whole string of tweets is a fun journey down memory lane).

3200 block of R St.

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is visiting a new collection for him, the National Archives. In particular, it is the Archive’s collection of incredibly detailed aerial photography of DC from the first half of the 20th century (thanks to the great Old Time DC for the idea). This particular photo is of the western end of the Key Bridge and the remnants of the aqueduct bridge in July 1931. And the resolution is such that we can really dive in to explore southwest Georgetown in the early 30s!

Right off the bat, we can see that the aqueduct bridge was just a skeleton at this point:

The Key Bridge was constructed in 1923, at which point the aqueduct bridge was closed. It wasn’t demolished until 1933 though, as this photo partially attests. And the abutments remained until the 60s.

Next to the aqueduct bridge, you can see the massive Dempsey’s Boathouse (just next to the still extant Washington Canoe Club), which also lasted until the 60s:

Continue reading →