The Georgetown Metropolitan

This week on Now and a Long Time Ago, GM stops by M St. circa 1900. Nowadays, M St. is almost entirely commercial, but from the time it was first laid-out, significants parts of the street were taken up by homes. What you see above was one of those original residential homes.

The building, located at 3250 M St., was built in 1802. The most striking feature about it, as described in Capital Losses, was it’s gambrel shaped roof (think how barn roofs are shaped) with dormers popping out the side its steep shape. According to James Goode, author of Capital Losses, even when the building was built it was of an anachronistic style. This sort of design was more popular in the 17th century, not the turn of the 19th. Apparently Georgetown was likely dotted with homes like this, but most were torn down long before photography came around. Continue reading →

Photo by Nyja Morris.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Arlington approved to provide financial support to the gondola study, giving it enough for the study to begin.
• GM heard that a serial burglar who had targeted Georgetown was arrested. Not much more details than that right now. (You should still prolly lock your doors).

3500 block of Water St.

Yesterday, the Washington Post published an article on an alarming story involving a dentist allegedly committing sexual assault on his patient. It’s a pretty intense story, and what it definitely didn’t need was even more “spice”, yet that’s what the author added when he tried to say it happened in Georgetown.

The dentist in question lives in Rockville, was trained at the University of Maryland and has his office at 2311 M St. That address is definitely not in Georgetown. Nothing about this guy is associated with Georgetown. Yet the headline of the Post article boldly states “Georgetown Dentist Charged with Sexually Assaulting Patient During Procedure”. Continue reading →

Photo by LaunchOurRocket.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Someone drove into the canal.
• Inside the very-soon-to-open-after-a-really-unusually-long-wait Bearded Papas.

3200 block of Volta Pl.

Two huge projects are on the agenda for next week’s ANC meeting (and the subsequent Old Georgetown Board meeting that Thursday): the new MedStar Georgetown Hospital building and the West Heating Plant.

The hospital is planning a new building (seen above) which will have a hugely transformative impact on the larger Georgetown campus, particularly the northern end. Where now there’s an ugly and pedestrian-unfriendly surface parking lot will (hopefully) be replaced by a tree lined L-shaped quad. The new building (seen in blue in the picture) will run north-south partially over where the parking lot now stands. The surface parking lot would be replaced by an underground one.

It should be said that GM once confidently predicted that the hospital would move. It was decision widely discussed among various planning committees at the time. But they changed their mind. (Some will say GM wrong along. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) Continue reading →

Photo by LaunchOurRocket.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Pretty soon when you have a gripe about Metro, you can ring up your neighbor Jack.
• After a few pop-ups in Georgetown, Ledbury is opening a real-real store in Cady’s Alley.

Dumbarton Oaks Park

Last year Warby Parker opened up in Georgetown to sell its hip-but-affordable eyeglasses to the public. Soon it will have company, when the German brand Mykita opens up to sell its hip-and-actually-pretty-expensive eyewear down the street.

According to the Old Georgetown Board agenda, a Mykita will be opening at 3001 M St., which used to house a frozen yogurt shop, and the late, great CD Warehouse before it. Continue reading →