Book Hill
The Qualitative Changes in Georgetown’s Population
Yesterday, GM traced the quantitative changes in Georgetown’s population over the years. During his research, he was browsing the 1940 Census population schedules. Specifically, he looked up who was living on his block in 1940. And they point to some equally significant qualitative changes in the population.
In 1940, in GM’s house there lived Jack and Doris Dickerson with three of their children and a nephew. Jack was a caretaker at the National Cathedral. He made $935 a year. That is the equivalent of approximately $59,000 in today’s money.
Nowadays the block is occupied mostly by lawyers or other white collar workers. But in 1940 it had:
- plumbing estimator & foreman (he was positively rolling in it at $3,300 a year)
- apprentice plumber
- helper at a metal sign factory Continue reading
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The Morning Metropolitan
photo by sbma44.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Some more detail on the new hotel on 31st St.
- Replacement Jack the Bulldog gets ready for his debut.
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The Historic Population of Georgetown
GM was pointed to a great resource the other day: The National Historic Geographic Information System. It sounds totally boring, yes! But what it is is a wonderful repository of census data going back to 1790. GM used this data to reconstruct the historic population totals for Georgetown going back into the early 20th century, and the results are surprising.
The first Census GM could find in the database that had coded the totals to a level below statewide was 1920. GM found the total population of Georgetown at that point to be 16,577. GM has some skepticism of that number, though. Unlike all the other years, he had to piece together the data from enumeration districts, not Census tracts. The fact that the total was so much higher than the other years suggests that this may not have been an accurate method.
So setting aside 1920, the story really begins in 1930. The population was 14,139. The population was 78% white and 22% black.
The total population inched up in 1940 to 14,958, with roughly similar racial demographics. But in 1950 two clear trends began. The total population dropped sharply, and the black population virtually disappeared. By that Census, the black population in Georgetown had already dropped from 3,258 to 1,841. By 1960 it was down to 509, or just 4% of the population. Continue reading
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The Morning Metropolitan
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Georgetown is stylish says same people who were rightly bagging on our bars just a while ago.
- Couple cool old maps of Georgetown.
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Waterfront Begins Construction on Largest Outdoor Ice Rink in DC
Courtesy of MRP Realty.
MRP Realty, the owners of the Washington Harbour complex, announce yesterday that they are beginning construction to convert their fancy new fountain into an ice rink for the winter.
From the release:
The 11,800-square-foot Washington Harbour Ice Rink — larger than the rinks at Rockefeller Center in New York City and the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden in Washington — will be ready to welcome its first skaters before Thanksgiving. In addition to offering open skating, discounts to college students and the opportunity to skate with Santa Claus, the rink will accommodate parties and special events, such as birthdays, family gatherings and corporate events.
11,800 is more than two-thirds the size of a full NHL ice rink. The release points out that the rink will be larger than Rockefeller Center’s and the National Gallery of Art’s. It will also be larger than the two other outdoor rinks close by DC: Pentagon Row and Silver Spring. At 7,200 square feet, the Silver Spring rink was cited as the largest outdoor rink between DC and Baltimore; so the Georgetown rink may end up being the largest outdoor rink in the whole greater metropolitan area. (New York being New York has to have the last word though. Real New Yorkers know not to use Rockefeller Center but rather the gigantic Wollman Rink in Central Park, which is a whopping 30,000 square feet). Continue reading
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The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Elvert Barnes.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Cool, cool photo of Key Bridge being constructed.
- The Albrecht Muth case proceeds.
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The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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