The Georgetown Metropolitan

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM is visiting Wisconsin Ave. in the 1930s. The photo comes from a large framed print in the Citizens Association of Georgetown’s offices (the same photo, colorized, is displayed on a wall at the TD Bank).

This is a wonderful photo. It’s taken from above the street looking north from just above the intersection with Prospect. It shows the curve in the road that gives this stretch such a nice attractive quality.

And while the buildings look quite different from those today, most of these buildings are still up.

The row of buildings are the far left are still here, but look quite different now:

The capital on the top of the bigger building to the left is gone, and the paint scheme is far lighter these days, but the biggest difference is at the street level. It once have a wooden porch sort of facade. This is long gone.

The smaller structures next to it have also changed a lot. There’s a balcony on one of them, and it also looks like it had clapboard siding. Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Four Seasons is the 15th best hotel in the country.
• Georgetown University remains the largest private employer in DC.

1700 block of 32nd St.

Georgetown is a neighborhood with a rich history of live music. At historic and long-gone venues like the Cellar Door, the Bayou and Desparado’s, Georgetown once hosted legends like Miles Davis and John Denver. But while these places are long gone, there are still some solid chances to hear live music in Georgetown.

The granddaddy of live venues in Georgetown right now is of course Blues Alley. Tucked away on its eponymous alley, Blues Alley is a legitimately great jazz supper club. It attracts top jazz talent and delivers an intimate experience. (GM once saw the Count Basie Band here and the bass player invited GM to reach up from his table and strum his bass for a few bars in the middle of a song.) There are shows practically every night, with styles spanning the jazz spectrum from smooth jazz to hard bop, and beyond.

At the far other end of the age range is Gypsy Sally’s. Opened in 2013, the club attracts more of the jam band/retro rock artist. Located at the far end of a dark road, the club probably has benefited a lot from the age of Uber. Either way, it’s a fun place enjoy some rocking sounds, whether in the flesh on stage or in the vinyl in the back room. Continue reading →

Photo by MV Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Via Umbria will tell you what cheeses to stock up for Valentine’s Day.
• Here’s your chance to live in GM’s former apartment! (Funny story: GM installed the crown moulding himself because he was bored one weekend and was watching way too much This Old House.)

1300 block of 33rd St.

Photo by BKL.

DC’s Historic Preservation and Review Board just approved the so-called “Exorcist Steps” (and the more substantial car barn next door) as a historic landmark. GM wanted to take this chance to re-publish his dig into why the steps exist in the first place (from 2015):

Tonight the city is honoring the special place that the so called “Exorcist Steps” have in the city’s history and designating them a “significant location”. The author of the original book, the director of the film and a host of other dignitaries will be on hand to mark the occasion. But it got GM wondering, how did such an odd set of stairs come about in the first place?

After digging a bunch, GM only came up with partial answers, unfortunately.

Unsurprisingly the stairs were built in conjunction with the adjacent Car Barn. The Car Barn was built in 1895 by the Capital Traction Company, which was actually running a cable car system at the time (that’s why some of the building’s decorations have flywheels on them). There’s an interesting article in the Washington Post from December 1894 profiling the elderly famous author Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth who lived in a cottage perched next door on Prospect. Here it is after she passed away when it became a bit of a tourist trap:

The Post noted that

The Union Station at the end of M street, in Georgetown, where the Great Falls railroad will join the Georgetown road will be built on the property just east of Mrs. Southworth’s historic home. Already the great grove of trees in front of it is cut down and the excavation has commenced, which will leave it sixty feet “above ground”. The dynamite blasts shake it to its foundation. In a little while the bare brick walls of the station will cut off most of the fine view in this direction, which has partly given it its name. But there is still the great stretch of the Potomac south and the hills beyond. “Prospect Cottage” can never have its outlook here taken away while it stands.

The cottage was demolished in 1942. In 1950 a new townhouse was constructed in its place. That is the Exorcist house:

Prior to the construction of the station, there was essentially a steep rocky hillside running from Prospect down to M St. From old maps it looks like 36th st. flowed over this steep hill much like 35th still does today (this is from 1874 when 36th was still called Lingan St.):

But in order to fit the large streetecar station, Capital Traction essentially had to dig into the the side of the hill and level the ground. Here are a couple photos from the construction. You can see how the excavation created the cliff we’re now familiar with:

Unfortunately neither of those photos shows the stairway.

After construction, the form we’re familiar with today was already present (north is to the right): Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• How to build another Georgetown, instead of a new football stadium.
• The Exorcist Steps are now a historic landmark.

Washington Harbour

Photo by MV Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• International intrigue on 30th St.
• The BID is proposing new signage at major gateways of the neighborhood.