The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Ehpien.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Tree killer raises ire on N St. (GM covered this last year)
• Speaking of trees, here’s the debate over ginkgoes. (GM personally dislikes ginkgoes. The fruit is terrible, of course, but on top of that, they grow way too slowly and offer hardly any canopy. There are much better trees we can plant.)

1300 33rd St.

Bisnow reported yesterday that Chase bank closed on its purchase of the historic Neam’s market building. The banking behemoth bought the property for $8.2 million. This news crushed GM’s hopes that since Chase is opening yet another branch at 3140 M St., maybe they weren’t going to go forward with their terrible plans to destroy a historic market building. Goes to show you shouldn’t underestimate how awful mega banks can be!

But it could have been different. Back in 2013, the Citizens Association of Georgetown (including GM) put forward a proposal to ban any new banks in Georgetown. The Georgetown Business Association (a lobbying group of Georgetown businesses, which shouldn’t be confused with the Georgetown Business Improvement District) objected to the proposal and the idea died. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The last ditch effort to block a condo by landmarking the Exorcist steps is getting national attention.
• Come be GM’s neighbor for under $800k.

3000 block of R St.

Today for Halloween, GM would like to reprint a Georgetown ghost story as told by Tim Krepp in his fantastic Ghosts of Georgetown:

Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Happy Halloween Georgetown! Here’s the latest:

• Book Hill’s Pillar and Post chosen as one of the most beautiful shops in the country.
• The Fresh Baguette bakery at Wisconsin and S St. opens tomorrow.

Montrose Park

Photo by Abbamouse.

If you’re like GM, you like to browse neighborhood real estate listings. And if you’re even more like him, you’ve come across the following and wondered, what the heck is this about?:

GM has always wondered what exactly “Urban Land-Sassafras-Chillum” means. So finally he did some digging (internet digging, not dirt digging). And it turns out these are classifications of soil.

GM was of the opinion that soil types boiled down to basic characteristics, like say “sandy” or “rocky” or maybe even “loamy”, whatever that meant. But apparently soils are classified by a system of incredible detail and particularity. According to this 1976 survey of the soils of DC, our little patch of land is composed of dozens of different soil types, with names such as “Brandywine gravelly loam” or “Beltsville-urban land complex”. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Edmond Neam, of the Neam Market family, passed away.
• Some traffic advisories for Halloween.