The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Donald West.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Fun map of Georgetown from 1877.
• A rare auction of a Georgetown home was apparently taken off the table.

C & O Canal

The gardens of Dumbarton Oaks are spectacular throughout the year. But during the spring, they are somehow even more beautiful. But the beauty comes in successive waves. Visit only once a season, and you might miss out. Or even if you do visit at a perfect moment, you might simply miss out on some corner of the gardens that are especially gorgeous that day.

GM spends every spring carefully timing his visits to the gardens to maximize the best parts. And its only fair that he share this knowledge with the public. So without further ado, here is a Users Guide to Dumbarton Oaks in the spring.

The guide is broken down by the particular attraction and when to visit to see it. Weather obviously can affect the timing a great deal. So if you are really eager to see one or more of the vernal shows below, it’s best to check it out on the early side and come back again if you’re too early.

Refer to this map on the gardens’ website for where to find the exact locations of the scenes below.

Plum Walk

One of the first displays of spring in the gardens is the Plum Walk. It’s a row of about a dozen plum trees that blossom with strikingly purple flowers. Like many of the items on this list, it is perfect for portraits, particularly of couples. When it’s in bloom, you often find newly engaged couples posing along the walk. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• New water taxi service.
• Some sort of weird furniture store concept it replacing North Face.

3100 block of K St.

If you’ve been to Montrose Park in the last couple months, you’ve probably been struck by the scope of the work that is being done there. GM was, when he visited there for the first time since the fall yesterday. But what are they doing, exactly?

The main thing that they are doing is finally restoring the historic tennis courts. This has been promised for years, without much progress. But by the end of the year (if not sooner) usable tennis courts will return to Montrose Park.

But not as many as had been there before. The only courts being restored are the two closest to R St., by Lover’s Lane. They will also be realigned to run east-west, not north-south.

The other courts, which were along Parrott’s Rope Walk, will not be restored. If fact they won’t be retained at all. Apparently they were added well after the Lover’s Lane courts and were considered not “original”. They have already been removed. Continue reading →

Photo by Elvert Barnes.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The former couple who own Evermay, Halcyon House, and a bunch other expensive Georgetown property, is going to own slightly less expensive Georgetown property soon.
• Josh Hermias, a familiar face to Georgetown, is looking to open an incredibly unusual restaurant. Given that he used to helm Minibar, it’ll probably be pretty good. Come back to Georgetown Josh!

3200 block of Prospect St.

Photo by Elvert Barnes.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Whole Foods in Glover Park is actually going to reopen after all.
• The time an activist threatened to release opossum-rats in Georgetown to force the city to address the problem elsewhere.

Potomac River