The Georgetown Metropolitan

Wisconsin Ave. in Georgetown is more and more a ghost town these days. The level of vacant storefronts along the street through Georgetown is surely near or at an all-time high. And it just seems to keep getting worse.

The stretch of the road between O and Q Streets has always been a bit of an outlier. For decades this stretch was dominated by cheap suit and jewelry stores. But those are almost entirely gone now. Only a couple remain. And in some cases the formerly decrepit building has been transformed into a beautiful new space. But the space still is mostly empty.

But the vacancies on Wisconsin Ave. are not limited to just these couple blocks. Vacancies pockmark the street from M all the way up to the Safeway. On the lower stretch, GM counts six empty storefronts, including the recent closures of Paolo’s and American/Holiday. In the middle stretch there are eleven empty spaces. Book Hill has a smattering of empty spaces. And Upper Wisconsin, above R, has been struggling with long empty spaces for years. Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Alex bar serves a “bath tub” gin in a tiny bath tub.
• The Chase invasion commences (including here in Georgetown)

3200 block of Water St.

Postcards are an excellent source of historical snapshots, both literally and metaphorical. Today, GM wanted to browse through a couple from DDOT’s collection that feature Georgetown.

The picture above is the first, showing an illustration of Georgetown University seen from the old Aqueduct Bridge. The back of the card is here:

The text reads:

From the Aqueduct Bridge, over which funeral corteges of many Army and Navy heroes have passed to Arlington National Cemetery a view of unusual beauty is obtainable. At the summit of the hill is Georgetown University, the original building being over 125 years old. Terraced beneath it at different elevations are the streets of old Georgetown, now West Washington, while reflected in the quiet waters of the Potomac are the Georgetown University and Washington Canoe Club Boat Houses.

The date of the card is probably around the 1920s. That’s because the oldest building on the campus is Old North, which was 125 years old in 1920. Moreover, the Aqueduct Bridge was closed in 1923, and demolished in 1933. (Granted, the card could have been produced more recently than the image depicts.)

A couple other interesting things: the homes depicted on the hillside below the university did exist in the early 20th century, but were torn down. That includes the GU boathouse. The Washington Canoe Club still exists, of course, but it’s green not red.

The second postcard in this group appears to come from the same photograph as the first. This one is clearly more just a reprint of a photo. It also shows Dempsey’s boathouse on the far right, which was excluded in the first postcard. It also shows Washington Canoe Club as red, maybe it really was red back then? Continue reading →

Photo by John Weiss.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Rare 18th century home sells for $6.7 million to institute dedicated to…Calvin Coolidge, what?
• Nice profile of Das Ethiopian owner.

1400 block of 33rd St.

Photo by Daniel Lobo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Peacock Cafe opening another location in Dupont.
• Martin’s Tavern is 85 years old! Congrats!

C & O Canal

Starting this weekend, Cultural Tourism DC will be hosting another of their annual free walking tour series. This includes dozens of free walking tours all over the city.

Here in Georgetown there will be two:

• Herring Hill & Georgetown’s African-American Communities — Sunday Sept. 16th 1:oo – 3:00 — Learn about the rich history of Georgetown’s African-American community, starting in Herring Hill, which served as the center for both enslaved and freed black and continued as such through the mid-twentieth century. View the various schools, some dating to the early 1800s, that African American Georgetowners established. Hear stories about the Underground Railroad and the ill-fated voyage of “The Pearl”. The tour takes place primarily outside with the exception of the Dumbarton House’s Slavery exhibit.
• Oak Hill Cemetery — Sunday Sept. 23rd — 1:00 – 3:00 — One of America’s outstanding examples of the Rural Cemetery movement, Oak Hill Cemetery in upper Georgetown is as historic as it is scenic. Join tour guide Craig Howell on this walking tour to the gravesites of Joseph Henry, first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; William Corcoran, philanthropist who established the Corcoran Gallery of Art; Philip and Kay Graham of The Washington Post; Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War under Lincoln; and local sportscaster Glenn Brenner.

Continue reading →

Photo by Daniel Lobo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• If you’re a Hoya and want to be part of a Cinderella story, the men’s basketball team is holding walk-on tryouts.
• Speaking about GU: The student body president just stepped down over allegations of sexual assault.
• There is a meeting tonight at the City Tavern Club on the proposal to build a 5G cell phone network in Georgetown. The meeting will discuss what sort of physical impact this will have on Georgetown due to the number of small cell phone towers needed. The meeting begins at 7:00 pm at 3206 M St.