The Georgetown Metropolitan

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 →

Photo by Ji Soo Song.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The search for the missing enslaved people sold by Georgetown University.
• M St. in front of the Four Seasons was completely blocked in the middle of rush hour last night. GM has now idea why, but assumes some foreign dignitary is probably involved.

Potomac Boat Club

This week on Know Your Trees, GM is branching out (ha) to talk about a tree you traditionally didn’t see very much in the tree boxes of Georgetown, but which you’re going to see more of in the future: the cypress. Specifically the bald cypress.

When GM first saw a cypress planted in a tree box, he was surprised that a tree famous for growing in deep southern bayous would do well in an urban environment. But apparently they can adapt well and are being planted more around places like Georgetown. The one above is on P just west of 31st. There were about five other relatively young cypresses planted around the neighborhood before this year. This year brought a handful more, including one on Volta just west of Wisconsin.

So what does a cypress look like? Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Sad news, Betsy Cooley, long time executive director of CAG and genuinely all-around fantastic person, passed away. She will be greatly missed.
• Update from yesterday’s article: Dumbarton Oaks thinks the oak they just took down was at least 200 years old.

Dumbarton Oaks

Dumbarton Oaks recently cut down a massive white oak. As a sign near the carnage explained, the tree was too sick to remain and posed a danger if it were left up.

The photo above doesn’t quite do this tree justice. Here’s GM’s daughter next to another of the slices, for some perspective:

From GM’s rough counting of the rings, the tree appears to have been between 100 and 130 years old. This is actually not particularly old for a white oak, which can in some circumstances live over 400 years. But it’s still a sizable loss for an estate named after it (and others of its kin). Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Decent, if not particularly surprising, Georgetown restaurant guide.
• West Heating Plant project gets critical approval.

Georgetown Waterfront

GM has been closely tracking the supposedly renovations of the Georgetown Dolcezza location, and how it rather appeared that the store was closing instead of renovating. He has now learned that the building has been sold and a new tenant is likely to move in. Booooo.

The new owner is an LLC registered to Kholsa Companies, a Bethesda-based real estate company. They bought the building earlier this month for just $810,000. The sellers were actually the Dolcezza company itself.

This seems cheap, honestly. Yes the building is not that nice and is not is terribly nice shape. But it’s a great location and the fact that the building isn’t historic would mean that it would be a good candidate for demolition and rebuilding. Continue reading →