The Georgetown Metropolitan

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I’m dipping back into the wonderful DC Historical Society archives. In particular, I’ve found a snapshot from the Wymer collection, which is a priceless trove of photos taken around the city circa 1950 by Bill Wymer. This photo is of a pool and playground in Georgetown.

Wymer describes the scene as “Wading pool, Georgetown Playground, 32nd Street and Volta Place NW. July 1, 1950.” The problem, of course, with that description is that there is no playground at 32nd St. and Volta Place. In fact, there is no 32nd and Volta. The streets don’t intersect.

Wymer likely got his streets mixed up and meant to say 33rd or 34th. The photo appears to show what is now called Volta Park. It also seems to show a wading pool, which I personally had no idea was ever there. Which makes me slightly suspicious that this isn’t really Volta Park after all?

Here is an aerial photo of Volta Park from 1951, I’m not sure it correctly lines up with the photo above:

If the top photo is to make any sense, it would appear that we’re standing just southwest of the tennis courts looking north towards Q St. But in the aerial photo, there’s nothing but a grass field southwest of the tennis courts. Moreover, the homes in the back of the picture don’t line up with Q St.

I was ready to write this off as not being in Volta Park at all, but then I realized that the white house in the background actually lines up fairly well with 1558 34th St. That would mean the photo was taken from the southeast of the courts looking west. There still does not appear to be corresponding structures in the aerial shot, but it is hardly a high resolution shot. So perhaps the wading pool and the house next to it are hard to pick up.

In either event, a wonderful summer shot nonetheless!

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• 38 years ago yesterday, the B&O Railroad official abandoned its rail line that ran from Silver Spring to K St. It later became the Capital Crescent Trail.
• PEAK WISTERIA!

DDOT conducted its public workshops last week for the Georgetown Transportations and Access Study. Hopefully you were able to attend, but if you were not, there is still an opportunity to weigh in. Please participate in the survey DDOT is conducting on the draft recommendations! The information is below:

Community Workshop #2 Meeting Materials
Georgetown Transportation Access and Circulation Study

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) hosted two (in-person and virtual) community workshops for the Georgetown Transportation Access and Circulation Study, a multimodal transportation study for the Georgetown neighborhood. The purpose of the workshop was to present draft recommendations were presented to the community and obtain feedback. Thank you to everyone who attended one of the two meetings.

The presentation slides from the in-person meeting (PDF) and virtual meeting (PDF) are posted on the project website. The boards (PDF) presented at the in-person meeting are also posted to the project website. A recording of the virtual meeting (link) is available on DDOT’s YouTube channel.

There is a short public survey open now until April 30th for all Georgetown stakeholders to provide feedback on the draft study recommendations. We invite you to provide your comments and share it with neighbors, coworkers, friends and others.

Take the Draft Recommendation Survey Now

All Georgetown Transportation Access and Circulation Study information, materials and updates are on the project website at engage.dc.gov/georgetownstudy

For more information, please contact Ted Van Houten, DDOT Project Manager at theodore.vanhouten@dc.gov or (202) 716-5302.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Condos in former church for sale.
• Speaking of real estate for sale: Pamela Harriman’s home is also available.

They say eclipses can mess with wild animals’ heads. Perhaps that explains why this, frankly, giant fix showed up in my alley yesterday. Red foxes aren’t totally unheard of around DC, but my particular alley is many blocks from the type of forest you’d expect to find one.

Any they’re nimble guys! This one made its way to the top of the garages on the alley, necessitating quite the leap:

Keep your eye on your small pets if you live around Cashell Alley, I guess!

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• If you weren’t able to get out of town to see the total eclipse yesterday, don’t worry, DC will host it’s own total eclipse in a mere 176 years! Eat your veggies!
• French Market coming the weekend of April 26th!

Photo by Jon Hayes Photography.

Spring is here. And while most trees haven’t started to leaf out for the season, they will sooner than you think. And once they do, it is critical for residents to water our street trees. So now is the time to make plans for it, especially if you have a young tree on the sidewalk in front of your house or apartment. This is especially true if it was newly planted this year. The basic goal you should have is to water young trees at least once a week, so long as you get a good 20-25 gallons of water. If you can’t water the new trees, try to find a neighbor who can.

The preferred watering device is the ooze tube (the bags that go around the bottom of the trees). You can differentiate them from the not-preferred gator bags because the gator bags have zippers. (They’re not preferred because they can create an unhealthy environment around the trunk and you have to remove them after each use.) With the ooze tube you can just fill it up and let it go.

If you don’t have an ooze tube, you can just leave a hose trickling into the tree box for 30 minutes to an hour.

Once a tree is mature, you can stop watering it. By then the roots are so spread out under the sidewalk that it doesn’t need your help anymore (although during any particularly dry periods, it can’t hurt to water it). At what point does a tree become “mature”? That depends on the tree. It’s better safe than sorry so you might as well do it for the first eight years or so.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Sara’s Market offering breakfast burritos every other Saturday.
• CAG to celebrate the Georgetowner’s 70th year.

At the ANC meeting this week, a plan was presented to renovate the group of properties between 1220 and 1234 31st St. For many years this complex has been called Hamilton Court and it was primarily used for offices. But in the middle part of the the 20th century, it was called the Hamilton Arms, and it was a truly wild and original place.

Hamilton Arms was created by a retired colonel named Milo Brinkley in 1939. Originally centered around a coffee shop, the property was home to dozens of dwellings that attracted a distinctly bohemian crowd. It was supposedly the location of DC’s first salad bar and pot party.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Pizzeria Paradiso reconsidered (from a beer POV).
• The mayor released a proposed budget yesterday that would complete end the Circulator service. Write your councilmembers if you want to keep it!