The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Kaysg.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Gondolas take a small step forward.
• Streets blocked for protest over Michael Brown killing.

Have a great and safe Thanksgiving everybody!

Georgetown Waterfront

This week on Now and a Long Time Ago, GM visits the corn of O and Wisconsin. He’s merged the present day shot with a shot of the northwest corner from 1893.

You can see a horse-drawn street car from the Metropolitan Railroad (there’s something about that name that GM likes!) The company was founded in 1864, first operating a line from the Capitol to 14th and I St. All its cars were horse-drawn at first.

It didn’t build a streetcar line into Georgetown until the 1870s. This is the company that first laid the tracks down O and P St. (The tracks you see today are not from this period. They were installed as part of the electrification in the 1890s). Continue reading →

Photo by Adam Fagen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown sidewalks: the epitome of DC Cool.
• Has Georgetown cheapened its brand? Good question, but in this particular instance it should be more like: Did Vornado cheapen Georgetown’s brand?

3000 block of Cambridge Pl.

Last night at St. John’s, representatives of the DC Department of General Services presented more detailed plans for the most recent version for the planned expansion of Hyde-Addison School. The city has been planning the expansion for years, and these plans appear to be the closest to the final ones that the neighborhood has seen yet.

The primary reason the expansion is that the school completely lacks a gym. It has no space large enough to contain the entire school population in one room. It has a cafeteria and library, but both are insufficient. Finally, it doesn’t have enough classroom space to accommodate the growth the school is anticipating.

The plan has evolved dramatically. Back in June, the idea was that to preserve the outdoor space, the entire building would have to be built underground. While this was an intriguing design, ultimately the Old Georgetown Board rejected it.

Since then the OGB has approved the modified massing of the project (i.e. the general size and shape). It will be an above-ground building located between the Hyde and Addison buildings. The gym, though, would be buried mostly under the playground. You can see the footprint of the project above, showing the gym.

Most of this was already known before last night. What last night revealed was what the new building would actually look like. And here it is:

Continue reading →

Photo by Ehpien.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• It appears that Bistro Francais is going to be reduced by half to fit in Francesca’s, a mid-market women’s clothing chain. Boo.
• GM can’t imagine living somewhere where the condo fee alone is over $6,000.

Georgetown Waterfront