The Georgetown Metropolitan

It seems inevitable that the pandemic is going to wreck absolute havoc on the long term retail vibrancy of Georgetown. And we may already be seeing the initial dominoes fall.

Brooks Brothers have already permanently shuttered its Georgetown location. Perhaps this was a long planned closure; it seemed to occur almost immediately after the shut down order was put in place. But there are no reports of wider store closures from the store. This seems to be a one off for just Georgetown.

But more clouds are coming. The Crumbs and Whiskers announced that it will likely close its Cat Cafe:

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Photo by John Weiss.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• That house on Potomac that almost went up for auction got a pretty good premium.
• Ward 2 gets mistakenly called the richest ward a lot, and GM thinks it’s because of Georgetown. Too easy to forget there are WAAAY richer people up on Woodland Pl., etc.

1700 block of 32nd St.

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM visits the aftermath of a steamboat collision in 1897. It comes from the archives of the Historical Society of Washington DC, and particularly from the Henry Wagner collection.

The archive states merely that it is of the “side-wheeler steamboat “Columbia” after sinking at dock on the Georgetown Waterfront.” A little digging by GM reveals that this mishap occurred September 6, 1897. It was the subject of an inquiry at the Georgetown customs house (now our post office) several weeks later, as reported by the Washington Post:

It’s unclear who was ultimately found at fault, but this apparently was hardly the end for the steamship Columbia. Nine years later, the Columbia’s hull was used for a steamboat gambling operation: Continue reading →

Photo by Daniel Lobo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• New design proposed for the hotel to replace the old Latham hotel.
• Jack Evans is trying to act like he really cares about ethics. It’s like the way that kid from middle school couldn’t shut up about how deeply he was in love with his girlfriend from Canada.

Montrose Park

Many businesses in Georgetown have ground to a halt. But the real estate business has not totally frozen, at least according to the listings.

In the past month, fifteen homes or apartments have been put up for sale in Georgetown. That is surely way down from a normal early spring market. But it’s not zero. And five of them are already under contract. There have been nine sales. Continue reading →

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• More on the bus route changes that won’t be coming to Georgetown.
• Georgetown’s not known as a hotbed of comedy, yet it’s produced some of the most successful young comedians of recent years.

1400 block of 28th St.

Yesterday, someone asked GM for help identifying an iconic image of Georgetown for a project they were working. They asked GM to look through his collection of photos of Georgetown to find his favorite shots, and perhaps that would help inspire their own selection. Somewhat lacking in article ideas these days, GM decided to answer with this!

A couple thoughts immediately jumped to mind. The truly most iconic images have somewhat been beaten to death:

But GM’s personal favorite photographs aren’t very quintessentially Georgetown:

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