The Georgetown Metropolitan

2017 is closed, and it can now be said that the most expensive home sold in Georgetown last year is the lovely Italianate home at 3024 Q St.

The home, built around 1887, was sold in May for $6.75 million. It was listed in March for $7.25 million. That’s a fairly healthy return on a house that was last sold in 2001 for just above $2 million.

But it sure does seem worth the money. Just check out the back yard:

There’s also apparently off-street parking for seven cars, which seem excessive.

The indomitable Nancy Taylor Bubes was the selling agent. The lucky new owner is the Lucky Star Trust. Hopefully they’ll fill the house with the pitter patter of little LLCs and Revocable Trusts.

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Get a King Cake Galette inspired by the Epiphany at Laduree.
• Hey people! We could do a better job salting our sidewalks! The bricks were pretty slippery yesterday.

1500 block of 30th St.

Today on Know Your Trees, GM is going to discuss a sad story: the ash tree. Perhaps not as once beloved as the might American elm, nonetheless ash trees were once a common site all up and down the east coast, save for some coastal southern areas. But in the 1980s, the emerald ash borer (a type of beetle) was introduced to America from Asia and it quickly started killing ash trees. In the decades since, the tree has been devastated in America.

To put it in perspective, compare it to the aforementioned American elm. Dutch elm disease took out 200 million trees. The emerald ash borer threatens 7.5 billion ash trees.

GM would give you guidance how to find ash trees, but there literally are none left in Georgetown. There is, however, one corpse of one located behind A Mano at the corner of Wisconsin and Reservoir. It is behind the store:

Continue reading →

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Douglas Development buys the building that currently hosts the Cusp store.
• Georgetown Ministry Center is closed for renovations, but if you see someone who really needs to warm up during the day, Grace Episcopal is open to all for that purpose.
• Correction from the article from last week: no settlement agreement has been reached for Reverie, and there is a lot of work ahead before one will be met.

The Georgetown Waterfront Park

Today on Georgetown Time Machine, GM floats you above the Key Bridge looking north. There are actually few changes between then and now, but GM will try to point some out.

The first question is when is this from? The DDOT page from where this came doesn’t say. But it comes from a series that appears to be from the early 1960s. The arrangement of the ramps off the Whitehurst would be consistent with that.

One significant difference from today is the Car Barn. It is a building that has changed dramatically over the years. When it was first built it looked like this: Continue reading →

Photo by Daniel Lobo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Very distressing news! The Current Newspapers have filed for bankruptcy protection. Hopefully they’ll be able to right the ship, but it’s a grim outlook.
• The Cat Cafe goes BYOB.

Potomac River

Sitting there, staring at the ever falling mercury, you’re probably really looking forward to spring. And you should! But GM wants to take today to consider what other things we can look forward to around Georgetown this coming year. Here they are:

Dumbarton Oaks Gardens Reopen

While we were able to walk around Dumbarton Oaks’ gardens through the springtime last year, since the beginning of summer the gates have been closed to the public. The gardens are undergoing a significant and long overdue modernization. As they explained last year:

The time has now come to undertake large-scale improvements to the garden’s water supply network, which dates to the garden’s original creation in the 1930’s. We are therefore obliged to close the gardens to the public from July 10, 2017 to March 15, 2018.

If they are still on schedule, the March 15th opening will be just in time to enjoy the spring fireworks (although it may miss the peak of the forsythia, which depending on the spring can happen before then). There really is no more beautiful spot in DC in springtime than Dumbarton Oaks, and this year we’ll be able to enjoy the summer and fall there again.

Canal to Get Water Again

The work on the canal lock at 30th St. is scheduled to be completed this year. Once it does, the water will be allowed to refill the canal once more.

In a small way this will be a shame, since the dry canal has actually turned into quite an ecosystem. (Although don’t mention the word “wetland”, because if it turns into that, due to EPA regulations they could be prevented from refilling it, or at the very least it would become a much more administrative burdensome task to accomplish). Continue reading →