The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Mark Manguerra.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice picture of the old Key mansion.
• Are you a “social entrepreneur”? If yes, you can live at Halcyon House.

1200 block of Potomac St.

John Hlinko passed on the above photo to GM yesterday. It shows the workers taking away the iconic Georgetown neon sign. As GM mentioned Monday, the new owner of the property, local architect Robert Bell, is having the sign repaired by Jack Stone Signs, the exact same company that manufactured the sign originally in the 1950s. Continue reading →

Photo by Roman Boed.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU student dies from meningitis.
• Luke’s Lobsters now serves alcohol.

1600 block of Wisconsin Ave.

Yesterday, Michael Neibauer of WBJ listed, as he often does, recent building permits of note. In what was an apparently winking bit of contrasting that he mentioned these two items together:

• 949 H St. NW: Construction of a new high-end retail clothing store, Loro Piana, at CityCenterDC. The Italian clothing company was established in 1924. Its handmade coat for men runs $36,975. But if you’re shopping there, you probably don’t care about prices.

• 3222 M St. NW: And now for the complete opposite of Loro Piana, we turn to Georgetown Park, where renovations will clear the way for a 20,000-square-foot Forever 21 on the M Street level. We first reported the addition of Forever 21in March.

In other words: whereas Georgetown is getting another discount clothing retailer, the as-of-not-even-open CityCenter is lining up yet another glitzy retailer.

This leads to a lot of questions, some GM can’t answer: Continue reading →

Photo by Roman Boad.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Ricin-cooking Georgetown student pleads guilty.
• Roy Hibbert, still running the Exorcist steps.

1200 block of Potomac St.

Having obtained all the necessary approvals, work has finally begun on the long-needed restoration of the old Georgetown Theater. While the end result will not satisfy those pining for a return of an actual theater, the vision being put forward is nonetheless positive and will hopefully spark a revival of that stretch of Wisconsin.

For those unfamiliar, the theater was purchased from the Heon family by Georgetown architect Robert Bell. Bell is about as perfect a custodian for the landmark property that you could imagine. Even years before he bought the building he was spearheading efforts to restore the legendary neon sign. Now that he does own it, his vision for the property and the block around it can come to fruition. What’s that vision? Bell lays it out in a letter posted in the window: Continue reading →

Photo by Mark Manguerra.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU’s new athletic center breaks ground.
• Hey, when celebrating the 200th anniversary of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner remember that Francis Scott Key was a Georgetowner!