The Georgetown Metropolitan

The fabulous Concerts in the Park will be returning next month, June 3rd, in Volta Park. The second will follow on July 15th in Rose Park. (They are scaling it back from three concerts this year). Also, Via Umbria is offering special picnic basket dinners for the concerts, which you can order here.

These are always a great time, so come on out!

Photo by Hillel Steinberg.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• One solution to bikes blocking the sidewalk is to establish bike corrals on the street on every block. Will the complaints about blocked sidewalks recede when the solution could impact parking just a tiny bit?
• The fascinating history of how WMATA ended up owning the Foundry Branch Trestle Bridge.

Potomac River

Photo by Richard Erikkson.

The Canadians are Coming! They’re coming bearing sensible winter clothes and plenty of flannel. Specifically the Canadian clothing brand, Roots, is opening a store on M St.

A reader pointed GM to the following announcement:

Roots is bringing its premium lifestyle brand (consisting of apparel, leather goods, footwear and accessories) to Washington D.C. by opening a 3,550 square foot store on M Street , the pinnacle of high street retail located in the Georgetownneighbourhood. The store will be one of the Company’s award-winning “Enhanced Experience” formats, where shoppers will be able to engage with the distinct character and heritage of the Roots brand, while interacting with product in a visually stimulating and socially connected environment. Going well beyond featuring the Company’s world-famous sweats, shoppers will be able to customize a selection of handcrafted leather bags and awards jackets, as well as enjoy a heritage wall, customer lounge and other design features that will add to the in-store shopping experience.

Continue reading →

Photo by Rudi Turksema.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Head back to Book Hill this weekend for an Art Walk.
• In case you missed it, the reason M St. was closed Tuesday night was for a suspicious package.

1500 block of 35th St.

GM wrote about how freight trains use to run down K and Water Streets yesterday and called for readers to submit what it was like patronizing bars like Chadwick’s at the time. And he received this fantastic story from Michael Judge:

Yes, I do indeed have memories of the old railway that ran through lower Georgetown.  Back in the mid-80’s, my friend Jack Gwaltney and I were aspiring actors working at Houston’s restaurant.  We would head down to Chadwicks after our shift to catch last call and commiserate about whether we would ever make it in show business.  One night, Jack looked out the bar’s front window and commanded me to “Make a wish!”  He then ran outside.  I followed him and saw the big locomotive chugging by.  Up we jumped onto a freight car like a couple of Woody Guthrie hobos.  We rode it until just beyond the Whitehurst overpass, jumped off, and raced back to Chadwick’s to pay our bar tab.

Jack went on to become a wonderful actor—he played John Marshall in the HBO series “John Adams.”—and I won the Helen Hayes award for best actor in 1987.  The good old days.

Anyone else ride the rails down K St.?

Photo by Hillel Steinberg.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The case for the gondola.
• This sort of event rental was just what the neighbors around Duke Ellington High School were afraid of.

Montrose Park

GM is reviving an old series today, Now and a Long Time Ago. He is doing so because a reader pointed to a fantastic collection of photos from the days when the Capital Crescent Trail was the Georgetown Branch of the B & O Railroad, and freight trains rumbled all the way in to the West Heating Plant. Continue reading →