The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by John Weiss.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• O St. home listed for $8 mil finds buyer.
• The Weavers might operate another hardware store in the new building on Prospect St.

Potomac River

It’s that time of year again, when people start to wonder what the hell are those giant grain brain-shaped fruit around Georgetown. As in past years, GM is ready with the answer, as reprinted below:

This time a year, if you wonder around Montrose or Volta Parks you’re bound to find on the ground weird softball-sized green fruit like the one above. People are often so struck by the sight of the fruit, they pick up one or two of them and bring them home. But what are they, you ask?

Despite their green color, they’re oranges. Osage oranges, to be specific. They are grown by Osage trees, which line the Parrot rope walk. These trees are prevalent in the Great Plains states, where they are often planted along hedgerows. Traditionally, the pliable but strong nature of this tree’s wood made it valuable for fence posts and archery bows. Continue reading →

Photo by Bryan Alexander.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Every time GM walks by the new Capital One Cafe on the weekends, it’s full. It’s confounding.
• A survey of Georgetown’s Asian restaurants.

Montrose Park

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM returns again to the wonderful archive of the Historical Society of Washington, DC for a photo of the demolition of the famous Key Mansion.

The photo is from 1948 and shows the former home of Francis Scott Key in the process of deconstruction. It was taken down in order to construct the Whitehurst Freeway. It stood, essentially, across the street from the former Exxon gas station.

The Streets of Washington wrote an elaborate and detailed history of the building. This also included its grim fate: it was deconstructed with the aim to be preserved and reconstructed somewhere else. But the entire house went missing and nobody knows where it went. (In truth, President Truman vetoed the funding of a bill to reconstruct a replica of the house using the old bricks. So the bricks probably just ended up in other projects.) Continue reading →

Photo by Rudi Riet.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Taste of Georgetown this Sunday.
• Where you can get a private dining room around Georgetown (and elsewhere).

3000 block of N St.

Makeup giant Sephora is moving its Georgetown location down to the other end of M St. Right now it’s located at 3065 M St. But apparently in order to have a larger space, it’s moving to 3241 M St. Someone should let them know it’s a cursed location.

This space most recently housed & Other Stories, a hip clothing store part of the H&M empire. It was open approximately five minutes before it closed in August. (Seriously it was only open one year).

The space underwent years of construction before & Other Stories moved in. Before that it was home to the Bandelaro, a short lived Mexican restaurant that was disowned by Mike Isabella before the restaurant ever had a chance to disown him. Continue reading →

Photo by Daniel Lobo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• What the French bistro that is taking over the Morton’s space will look like.
• GM also noticed that this article from yesterday’s links also suggests that the Johnny Rockets might be losing its lease. (Which is really too bad since the chain is no longer owned by Dan Snyder, so it’s ok to visit now.)