Photo by Daquella Manera.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Georgetown students are stressed.
- The drawbacks to owning old houses.
The Morning Metropolitan
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Waterfront Ice Rink Grand Opening Tomorrow
Photo by Carol Joynt.
Don’t forget: tomorrow night the Georgetown Waterfront Ice Rink will celebrate its grand opening. Yes, it’s been open already for a couple weeks, but tomorrow is a belated party. It starts at 4:00 pm. Here are the details:
4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.: Continuous entertainers and creative lighting effects; special food and beverages served outdoors
4:00 p.m.: Montana Ignacio – Ice skating performance
4:30 p.m.: Georgetown Phantoms – 30 minute a cappella performance
5:00 p.m. The Gardens Figure Skating Club – Ice skating performance
5:15 p.m.: St. Lucia Procession from the House of Sweden
5:30 p.m.: Swedish Choir Performance
6:00 p.m.: Mini-Supremes Bowie ISI Synchronized Skating Team – Ice skating performance
The BID is no longer throwing its Merriment in Georgetown celebration, but this might be a nice replacement if they start holding it every year.
Filed under Events
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Cthrin.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- How can Rose Park playground be improved.
- The story behind Fishers Farmers and Bakers remodel.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Google Maps Invades Georgetown Stores
GM was using Google Maps the other day when he stumbled on a new feature: Business Photos. What this is is Google Maps normal Street View technology, which lets you see 360 degrees from the street, but from inside stores. Above you can navigate your way through Patisserie Poupon.
There seem to be a couple dozen stores throughout Georgetown that have signed up for this service. To find them follow these instructions.
1. Open Google Maps.
2. Move your mouse over to the little yellow man in the top left corner and click (and hold down the button):
3. Now drag the little yellow guy over to the street. The stores that have this feature will have a little orange dot:
4. Position him over one of those dots a release the button. It will drop you into the store. You can navigate around the store like you would on the street, and can even walk right out the door. (Alternatively, you can go from the street into the store). Continue reading
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by ThisisBossi.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Wait, GU students have to be back in their dorms by 10 PM? That doesn’t sound right…
- Where to get Christmas greens without leaving the neighborhood.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Now and a Long Time Ago: M and 31st
This week on Now and a Long Time Ago, GM slides down M St. a bit to M and 31st. Today the three buildings in question hold a German television station, Sports Zone, and Georgetown Tobacco.
The first thing that GM noticed looking at the Library of Congress’s shot of these buildings from 1966 is that the huge windows were there already. GM always figured they were a more recent addition.
Well according to the report of the American Historical Building Survey, the windows are original to the building. It was built around 1909 and the AHBS describes it as “an unusual structure for Georgetown…[which] typifies an increasingly rationalisitic and functional early twentieth century approach in commercial.” In essence, this building is a proto-modern structure. While it still embraced the classical ornamentation, it pointed towards the clean and glassy aesthetic that would ultimately dominate 20th century architecture.
It makes this building historically interesting in a way unlike most historic buildings in Georgetown. Which makes it all the more unfortunate that it’s currently occupied by such a crummy store that rather than use the windows to open up the interior to the outside, uses the windows to erect billboards. (Arguably these billboards are already illegal, but if they’re not, they will be once DDOT adopts new signage rules next year.)
To be fair, back in 1966 the tenant, a furniture store called the Door Store, also blocked all the windows (at least in this case it was with curtains, not ugly ads). It would be such a better use of this beautiful facade for the interior to be opened up to the outside.
In the 1920s, this property was a furniture store. It appears to have become a Sears retail store in the 1930s.
By the 1950s, it was a Western Autos autopart store. On April 29th, 1951, a recently fired employee tried to break into the safe after hours. He failed, and decided to burn the building down. He was arrested and convicted for arson, receiving a 3-9 year sentence. Continue reading
Filed under Now and a Long Time Ago
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Thisisbossi.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Key Bridge construction to end soon.
- CAG is holding a meeting at the Nike store this Thursday night with Charley Casserly, former general manager of the ‘skins. (As CAG secretary, GM would like to remind you that you don’t have to be a dues paying member to attend these meetings, so check it out!)
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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