The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Mike Silva.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Hockey on the canal.
• Shot of the old Key mansion.

Photo by Joseph Gruber.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Tom Sietsema likes After Peacock Room.
• Barry Fruendel pleads guilty to voyeurism.
• Special nighttime Q & A Cafe tonight to discuss national security issues.

Pomander Walk

Would Volta Park exist without Napoleon Bonaparte?

Of course it would. But would it be the same name? Probably not, surprisingly enough.

That’s because Volta Park is named after Volta Place, one of the streets that borders it. Volta Place is named after the Volta Bureau, which stands at 35th and Volta. (Volta Pl. was originally Fourth St., then it was temporarily Q St. before being renamed Volta Pl. circa 1920).

And the Volta Bureau was created by Alexander Graham Bell and named after the Volta Fund, which was Bell’s trust fund he established to study deafness. The trust was funded by and itself named after the Volta Prize, which Bell received in 1880 by the government of France in honor of his inventing the telephone. (It was 50,000 francs, which translates to about $500,000 in today’s money). Continue reading →

Photo by Adam Fagen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• TRAGEDY: Water pipe break at library puts Peabody Room collection at risk! Luckily looks like the damage was minimal.
• Relatedly, the library will be closed until Friday.

1500 block of 35th St.

As GM reported last month, the lottery to enter Hyde-Addison Elementary School wraps up March 2, just a week and a half away. And also remember, next year Hyde will be enrolling three year olds for the first time. As GM explained, this may complicate your planning a bit:

Hyde will be offering one Pre-K3 class and one Pre-K4 class. This creates a bit of a dilemma for parents of three year olds (like GM). If you do not enter for or win a slot for Pre-K3, unless something changes the following year, you will have a very slim chance of getting a slot at Pre-K4 for the Fall of 2016. Most of the slots for the Pre-K4 classroom for the Fall 2016 would be taken up by the Pre-K3 kids rising a level.

Continue reading →

Photo by Carole Lewis Anderson.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Yarrow Mammout and the importance of preserving Georgetown’s African American history.
• Speaking of which, did you ever know that before the Williams sisters, two Georgetown siblings were world famous tennis players? GM suggested to the Friends of Rose Park that they name the Rose Park tennis courts (where they were taught the sport) after the girls, Margaret and Mathilda Peters. Let’s hope it can be done.

Georgetown University

Photo by Iain Ding.

The focus of Under Armour’s connection to Georgetown recently has been on the company’s plans to open a store in the old Nathan’s building. But GM realized that starting last year, the company has been putting out a subtle tribute to the company’s Georgetown roots.

It comes in the form of the store’s “lifestyle” non-athletic brand “35th and O”. This isn’t a testament to Under Armour’s founder’s love of Saxby’s but rather a reference to his grandmother’s house. He explained to the Post last year:

[W]e bootstrapped, and my first year in business, we did $17,000 in sales out of a little townhouse on the corner of 35th and O Street in Georgetown…It was three floors. I was living upstairs, and the kitchen was up there. I had a sales office on the ground floor, which was essentially the dining room and living room. In the basement, we kept inventory. And in the corner of the sales office, we kept “The Price is Right” on the television.

Continue reading →