The Georgetown Metropolitan

Facing extended store closures, shops around Georgetown have started to get boarded up. This is part of a larger trend seen around DC, and and other cities. It would appear the owners are afraid of looters, but it sure seems like an overreaction to GM.

In Georgetown, GM only identified two shops literally boarding up. There’s Michael Kors, seen above, and Sephora:

Can’t they just unload the stores of their goods? Continue reading →

Photo by Kevin Dooley.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Rev. Cole is out of the hospital and back home.
• There used to be a coal conveyor belt tunnel under K St.

Dumbarton Oaks

This week GM has been delving into the varieties of historic architecture that we have around Georgetown. For the final installment he is going to highlight the odd ones out, in other words the homes that weren’t built in the dominant styles of Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Romanesque.

The first is French Ecclectic, which you can find on the 2900 block of Q St:

Continue reading →

Photo by Olaf Zerbock.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown made the cover of the New York Times on Saturday in an article about storefronts closing and getting boarded up.
• Funk band joins in on the 6:00 neighbor wave on Q St.

Dumbarton Oaks

Please enjoy this rerun of GM’s series on Georgetown architecture:

This week GM is exploring the variety of historic architecture around Georgetown. Today he explores the late Victorian Period. For Georgetown that means primarily two styles: Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque.

First up: Queen Anne. The Queen Anne style was developed in England by a group of architects in the 1860s and 1870s. It was meant to evoke a medieval period of English architecture, although it was a bit of a misnomer since the architecture popular during the real Queen Anne was actually a formal renaissance style.

The Queen Anne style that dominated American homes during the 1880s is characterized by asymmetrical design with a variety of different towers and hipped roofs that form an irregular roof line. Also, the surface materials included a variety of textures such as scale shingles and the homes were often decorated with elaborate spindles and other fanciful woodwork.  Basically, the classic “gingerbread” home that comes to your mind when you think of Victorian homes is probably a Queen Anne. Continue reading →