The Georgetown Metropolitan

There is supposedly a snow storm bearing down on us. GM figures the best way to jinx the storm and get no snow is to show a bunch of pictures of when we did get hit with a lot of snow. Surely that will do it!

Continue reading →

Photo by Zach Stern.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Shop House is really, truly, shutting down this time. No word on what will replace it. It seems unlikely to be converted to a Chipotle, since there’s already one in Georgetown. Some articles suggest that they are simply selling all the leases.
• Always lots to do in Georgetown.

3500 block of Prospect St.

Photo by Mararie.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GM couldn’t make it to the meeting on the new plans for the West Heating Plant last night, but Urban Turf had it covered.
• Speaking of Urban Turf, they are also reporting that a raze application has been filed on the gas station at Pennsylvania Ave. and M St.

Montrose Park

Today at Now and a Long Time Ago, GM is switching it up to be Now and Thankfully Never. That’s because he overlaying on today an image that never came to be and hopefully never will: Three Sisters Bridge

This proposed (and partially built) bridge was to connect Spout Run in Arlington with a new freeway running along Canal Rd. that would merge into the Whitehurst. It was part of an ambitious and misguided effort to cut through DC with a whole network of highways. Thanks to heroic efforts of civic activists from across the city, the project was halted before it could come to complete fruition. (We still ended up with I-295 through southwest DC and the stub center leg freeway, both of with destroyed several neighborhoods). Continue reading →

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The architecture behind the new Aesop fragrance shop.
• When GU went co-ed.

1300 block of 31st St.

GM noted the other day that the house seen above (3024 Q St.) was one of his favorite homes in Georgetown. That got GM wondering, what are his ten favorite homes in Georgetown?

This wouldn’t necessarily be a list of the ten “best” homes in Georgetown. There are plenty of beautiful homes that GM would kill to have, but this is more a list of the homes that are not necessarily the biggest, most expensive homes in Georgetown, but rather homes that simply catch GM’s fancy.

Here they are in no particular order:

1237 30th St.

GM was originally drawn to this house because it always had little candlelights in every window and was shaded by a beautiful tree out front. Neither of those feature remain. Nonetheless, this house will always appeal to GM for its lovely proportions.

1552 33rd St.

This unusual house has a fascinating history. It was originally a Presbyterian Church. And it was converted to a house in the 1930s by Karl Ernst, brother of the famous painter Max Ernst.

It was Ernst who added the Tudor style features (the church had a simply clapboard siding). In 2011 when the family that owned the house planned a dramatic renovation they asked the Old Georgetown Board if they could restore the original clapboard appearance, but were turned down. The Tudor style had become historic.

GM is lucky because he lives across the street from this house and gets to admire it every day. Continue reading →

Photo by Sikeri.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Some parents, frustrated over Hyde-Addison swinging across town, are organizing a new elementary school in Georgetown.
• Tons of woman-owned business in Georgetown you can patronize to show support if you’re striking today.