The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Barbara Downs.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Lovely piece on social distancing, illness and family by Georgetowner Dan Sallick.
• Safeway’s to add “sneeze guards” to its checkout lanes.

Dumbarton Oaks

This week GM is exploring the varieties of historic architecture in Georgetown and offering a field guide to help you identify each particular style.

Today: Romantic Period

For American architecture, the Romantic period stretched from 1820s to the 1880s representing the last years of the Federal Period through to the middle stages of the Victorian Era. In Georgetown the two most common Romantic Period styles are Greek Revival and Italianate.

First up: Greek Revival.

Greek Revival style homes were the dominant style across the U.S. from 1830s to 1850s. So much so that it is also called the “National Style”.  Whereas Roman designs influenced the Federal period, increasingly intellectuals looked to Greece as the more appropriate model for the young democracy. Continue reading →

Photo by Olaf Zerbock.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• ANC Commissioners call on city to provide more resources for residents to fight Covid-19.
• The Mayor is expected to order the closure of non-essential businesses.

Dumbarton Oaks Park

It’s a weird time. And there’s not a lot of Georgetown news. And if you’re stuck at home, looking for a break from Netflix, GM is going to re-run his Field Guide to Georgetown Homes series. Hopefully it will be a bit informative for you. Enjoy!

If there’s one constant in Georgetown real estate listings, it’s that every house, no matter its shape and style, is described as “Federal”. The problem is that only a small percentage of homes in Georgetown could fairly be described as “Federal”.

Georgetown represents a cross section of 19th century architecture. It has buildings of just about every major style from that time period. To help his readers better appreciate the wealth of architectural styles in Georgetown, GM is going to take a shot at writing a field guide to Georgetown homes.

First up: Colonial and Federal Homes

Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Some updated information on the BID’s store/restaurant status list.
• Not really news, but just an observation GM’s made: After a week of it being the go-to photo for local Covid-19 stories, Christ Church has finally slipped off the newspapers. Silver lining, people!

1500 block of Wisconsin Ave.

Photo by Jon Hayes Photography.

If you’re looking for something to be cheerful about these days, consider this: Mother Nature doesn’t have to quarantine herself. The spring can keep coming, regardless of what humans are doing, or not doing. Life, for humans, will eventually go on. But life for everything else isn’t going to stop in the first place. And for no creatures is that truer that it is for trees. Soon they–at least the street ones–will need your help. And if you’re looking for something productive to do, get you and your block ready to care for its trees once the leaves sprout!

Until then, you don’t need to start watering. But it will become necessary sooner than you think. So if you have a young tree on the sidewalk in front of your house or apartment, please, please keep it in mind this summer and water it. This is especially true if it was newly planted (and the city just finished with its planting effort). The basic goal you should have is to water young trees at least once a week, so long as you get a good 20-25 gallons of water. If you can’t water the new trees, try to find a neighbor who can.

The preferred watering device is the ooze tube (the bags that go around the bottom of the trees). You can differentiate them from the not-preferred gator bags because the gator bags have zippers. (They’re not preferred because they can create an unhealthy environment around the trunk and you have to remove them after each use.) With the ooze tube you can just fill it up and let it go. Continue reading →

Photo by Angela N.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown Hospital getting ready for the deluge.
• Georgetown University student was diagnosed with Covid-19.