The Georgetown Metropolitan

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Landmark Prospect House to hit market.
• Helpful guide for a Georgetown wedding.

The ANC will be meeting for our March edition next Monday at 6:30 pm, back at Visitation.

The draft agenda is not ready yet, but I wanted to get out the word that Councilmember Brooke Pinto will be attending. Following her presentation she will participate in a Q&A session. While the questions from the ANC will come first, we want to open the floor to the public as well.

To that end, if you have a question for Brooke, please email myself (2e02@anc.dc.gov) and Gwen Lohse (2306@anc.dc.gov) by Thursday. In the interest of time, we are going to try to condense the questions where possible.

Additionally, for my part I will be asking the city to present its updated plans for the Volta Park renovation. These plans are before the Old Georgetown Board in March, so this will be one of the last opportunities to weigh in if you have any strong thoughts.

I will circulate the draft agenda once we pull it together.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• New exhibit at Tudor Place highlights the stories of the enslaved residents.
• Excellent self-guided tour of Mt. Zion Cemetery.

Dramatically altered plans have been put forward for the development of several parcels along Wisconsin Ave. in upper Georgetown. Although the site had previously received approval to move ahead with a single apartment building with 40 units, the new plans would call for the construction of nine connected townhouses instead.

As I reported last week, Sherwin Williams is moving out of this lot up to Glover Park. I guessed that this might mean the plan for constructing the apartment building would move forward finally (after having been approved a while ago):

But a filing with the Old Georgetown Board indicates a different direction altogether. As mentioned above, the new plans call for nine rowhouses, which will be connected by a common courtyard. The residences will sit on top of 3,400 sqf of retail along Wisconsin Ave.

The front of the homes will be oriented inwardly to a inner courtyard, which you can see in these drawings. The residents would access their homes from a common entrance on St. that leads to the elevated common courtyard:

The application cites several local examples in Georgetown of precedents for this style (and some international examples too). One specific example it cites is Pomander Walk, in that it is a grouping of a little fewer than a dozen rowhouses faces a narrow common entryway. Coincidentally an even more on point example is another Pomander Walk: Pomander Walk, New York, NY. This fairly anachronistic development in Manhattan that was built in the 1920s has the same design as the Georgetown proposal with a group of small rowhouses built around a common, elevated courtyard.

(It’s not really a huge coincidence that two Pomander Walk developments are similar in design. They’re both named after an early 20th century play about a small street in London built in the same style.)

It’s a bit of a shame that the original apartment building is no longer being proposed. As mentioned above, that would have resulted in 40 units (with 48,000 sqf for residences and 8,000 sqf for retail). The new plans only result in 9 units with about 29,600 sqf for residences and 3,400 sqf for retail. That will likely result in fewer residents moving into a stretch of Georgetown that could use a lot more foot traffic.

But on the flip side, it will result in units averaging more like 3,200 sqf instead of about 1,200 sqf. Clearly the developer thinks that is in more demand. In either event, I’m eager to see something here that contributes more to the neighborhood than a parking lot and a couple of (now) empty storefronts.

A new restaurant appears set to replace the short-lived Sticx restaurant at 1728 Wisconsin Ave. According to an Old Georgetown Board application, the restaurant will be called Han Palace. It will be the third location for the Chinese restaurant. The website indicates it will have a soft open on Feb. 24th.

No word yet on whether they will use the upstairs wine-bar space. Sticx–which had the bad timing of opening right before Covid–had amusingly called this upstairs space Stonz (get it? sticks and stones?). It’s also unclear–with Shanghai Lounge so close–if there’s demand for two Chinese restaurants literally feet from one another. Time will tell.

In either event, it’s great to see this space come back to life after being vacant for so long. Before Sticx opened in 2020, the building had been empty since 2015 when P.O. Boxes Etc. moved out. Lets hope this unlucky run has come to an end.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• New chef at L’Avante Garde.
• Female students navigate a male-dominated student senate.

ABCA has released the list of applicants seeking a medical marijuana retailer’s license. This initial group includes stores that were previously operating under I-71 (i.e. the “gifting” stores), which were given first dibs for the new licenses.

There are eight establishments seeking a license to be located in Georgetown. That list includes (the third column is the proposed location and the fourth column is the previous location the store operated in, if any):

Being on this list merely means an application was submitted. It is not an indication that ABCA has cleared the applicant for placarding. So far only two have reached that point (UpnSmoke and Georgetown Supply). They are both in the process of hammering out a settlement agreement with the ANC.

Not all of the remaining applicants will be able to get a license, at least for the locations identified in the application. 1432 Wisconsin Ave. (“Delorean”) is too close to Hyde-Addison to receive a license. 1263 Wisconsin (both “DC Capital Connect” and “Funky Pharmacy” identified this location) is too close to where Georgetown Supply is set to occupy. So those two applications should be rejected. 1671 Wisconsin Ave. (“Fat Munchiez”) is too close to 1620 Wisconsin Ave. (“Luxury Soil”). Since Luxury Soil put in its application first, it will get priority and will block Fat Munchiez.

So, at least initially, there will only be three applications that can move forward. More applicants may arise later, but it appears that we will have substantially fewer pot shops than we have now.

Of course that reduction depends on the city shutting down the I-71 shops that did not apply for a retailer’s license. Recent legislation from the council clarified that ABCA has that authority. As ANC commissioner, I will be encouraging that they use it poste haste.

• Big drama in the Georgetown club scene (no, not that sort of club scene…)
• A report on our recent ANC meeting.

This is the time of year when parents of young children looking to make plans for next fall start applying to nursery schools. And with that in mind, please consider my heartfelt recommendation: the Children’s House of Washington.

The Children’s House of Washington (or C.H.O.W.) is a Montessori school located in the Dumbarton Methodist Church right here in Georgetown. It doesn’t get quite the same attention as some of the other nursery schools around Georgetown, but my daughter had three wonderful years there, and I can say with confidence that it was absolutely one of the best decisions my wife and I have made for her.

Teaching children 2-6, the school follows the Montessori method, which may be unusual for some people. In Montessori, students pursue their education at their own pace, working on their skills via a variety of “work” activities in which they have been trained. It would seem that it should be chaotic, but well run Montessori classrooms hum with productive activity as the teachers move from group-to-group ensuring that they are on track with whatever task they’ve chosen. And C.H.O.W. is one of those productive Montessoris.

The school attracts a great mix of families. Most are from the Georgetown neighborhood, or a neighborhood close by. Many are international families, here either permanently or for a few years. Most of my daughter’s friends from C.H.O.W. speak (at least) two languages. And regardless of whether they are international or not, the families were all incredibly lovely.

I can also speak from experience that the Montessori method works. My daughter moved on to Kindergarten already reading and comfortable with math and other important areas. And she has continued to thrive ever since. The arts program is also superlative and instilled a creative drive in GM’s daughter that has lead to a house full of projects too precious to throw away.

It is a wonderful, small, and affordable school right here in the heart of Georgetown. If you are looking for a preschool (either for now or next year) I highly recommend you check out C.H.O.W. Drop me a line if you want to learn more!

• Here is the correct link to article yesterday about Jackie Kennedy’s house being sold to Eric Schmidt.
• Great African American cultural walking tour for Georgetown.