There are several notable features that jump out. The first is, of course, the fact there’s a railroad track. In case you didn’t realize it, there once was a freight rail line that went along what is now the Capital Crescent Trail. It came all the way down Water and K Streets. Trains ran on the track as late as 1985.
Here’s a train at 33rd and Water St. in the 70s:
Next, the aqueduct abutment is still around. But this photo shows the bridge superstructure that once stood on top of the abutment. By this time, the aqueduct bridge was really just a normal bridge. But it once was a real aqueduct as you can see from this 19th century photo looking south across the aqueduct from Georgetown into then rural Arlington:
The aqueduct bridge was replaced by the Key Bridge in the 1920s and torn down soon after. The bridge abutments remained for decades though. Here they are in the 1960s:
Most of them were blown up with dynamite in 1962, but they left one near the southern shore as a relic.
Finally, the last notable thing about the top photo is that it shows the entrance to the old Dempsey’s Boat House. This was a public boathouse that offered boat rentals to the public for decades in the early part of the 20th century. When Thompson’s Boathouse was opened in the 1950s, though, it was abandoned. It later burned to the ground in a spectacular 1961 fire:
History is coming somewhat in full circle though. The location of the old Dempsey’s Boathouse is the future site of the relocated Key Bridge Boathouse, which will move once Georgetown University starts building its boathouse.
As part of my survey on Georgetown establishments, I always like to parse out the various cuisines at the restaurants around the neighborhood. And so above is that chart.
As was the case last time, “American” still leads the way. Last time “Sweets” came in second. And if I were to group them all together like that again, they would still be in second. But this time I decided to break them out.
French now comes in second, and shows an uptick from 8.5% to 9.7%. In truth, Italian would be second if I grouped all the pizza places with the general Italian. But I decided not to do that.
Japanese was another big gainer, going from 4.6% to 6.7%. In nominal terms it’s a jump from 6 to 9 (reflecting to sushi boom we’ve been having).
All in all, you can get cuisines from just about every corner of the globe around Georgetown these days. Bon Appetite!
I finally got around to crunching the numbers from my latest street survey and can now present the State fo Georgetown 2025:
I’ve been doing this survey since I started this website in 2008, and so the accumulated data reflects the ebbs and flows of the Georgetown retail community. And the overall message from this year is that Georgetown is still soaring out from the Covid depths.
But before I get to the numbers, I need to issue my typical disclaimer: First, it’s important to know that my counting is more of an art than a science. The term “establishments” or “store” as used here refers to just about all commercial establishments serving the general public: retail stores, restaurants, salons, gyms, etc. I don’t count pure office space. The rule of thumb I use is if you can walk in without an appointment, I count it. But again, sometimes it’s a close call (for instance, I count realtors but not lawyers). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Overall Picture
The last time I did this survey (about 20 months ago) the story was one of a neighborhood rebounding well from Covd. And the story of this survey is that that rebound has reached escape velocity. To put numbers to that: right before Covid, I counted 509 stores in Georgetown. While that’s still down from an overall peak I counted before the mall closed, it’s still on the higher end for the neighborhood. in 2021 I counted 451 stores, an 11% drop. By 2023, though, the numbers were already back up to 464. This year the numbers have continued to climb, up to 480. That’s still down from 2019, but it’s nearly there.
I measured 89 openings and 73 closures. While that seems a jump over the last measure (62 openings and 46 closures) I was very overdue for the survey. So as a result I was measuring a longer time period. If I calculate the number of openings and closings per month the picture is a bit clearer:
The opening rate per month (the blue line) jumped from about 2.25 coming out of Covid to over 4 in 2023. It’s stayed roughly there. The closure rate per month (the red line) obviously jumped due to Covid but has settled to a little above 3 per month. In other words, since 2021 there are an average of four stores opening in Georgetown a month with three stores closing. That’s a healthy positive surplus.
Independents vs. Chains
One of the main reasons I started conducting this count was to push back against the widely held perception that Georgetown is only mall chain stores. While it may sometimes feel that way (depending on what block you’re on), as a matter of pure head count, Georgetown has always had a clear majority of independent establishments.
(Just for clarity: I don’t have a hard and fast rule for whether something is “independent”. Basically I ask: is it based in DC? Does it have fewer than five locations? But even a “no” to either might still get an independent tag. It’s a gut thing.)
I counted 303 independent shops in Georgetown. That’s essentially the same I’ve counted over the last handful surveys. What that means is that the growth in stores has come almost exclusively from chains. I counted 158 chains in 2023. Now it’s 177. But that also means that independents still dominate in terms of pure numbers, with 63% of the total.
Store Variety
The variety of establishments has remained fairly stable over the years. The largest category remains restaurants, with clothing stores a close second, and salons comfortably back at third:
Last time I noted that I created a “cannabis” category for the first time and hoped it would be a smaller number the next time I counted it. In 2023 I counted 15 such shops. This time I counted 9. Progress!
Georgetown University received a positive reception from the Old Georgetown Board last week for their boathouse plans. They had a couple small suggestions and requests, and asked for the school to come back one more time, but expects to give the concept the green light at that point.
I finally completed my annualish store survey several weeks ago, but still haven’t fully crunched all the numbers. I posted a preview of the closings I recorded, and sharp eyed readers pointed out several stores that I misidentified. That turned out to be a useful exercise, so I’m trying it again with the stores I counted as opening.
This is a bit tougher to fact check, because you’d have to remember specifically that the store was actually open the last time I did the survey (September 2023). Also, there are still one or two shops that get newly counted that didn’t really open recently, I just simply missed them in the past.
With all that said, here is the preliminary list of all the openings I detected since September 2023, let me know if something doesn’t look right!:
Of course, that view now would be of the Georgetown library. But that building wasn’t built until 1935. What you see in this photo is actually the top of a spectacular Victorian era reservoir that once occupied these grounds.
I’ve written about this structure before. It was an unusual shape, emerging from the top of the hill like something out of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:
The structure dated to 1853, but an article from when it was torn down suggests that it did not come into operation until the end of the Civil War (which I find somewhat hard to believe, but who knows).
The reservoir is long gone, but the wall and fence you see in the top photo is still the wall and fence you see surrounding the library to this day. The fence has a distinctive Neptune’s trident shape, which reflects the property’s previous use.
A long way back I used to run an occasional series where I’d simply ask the question: Why Not? Like, “Why Not Have a Waterfront Ice Skating Rink?” (that one actually partially led to the creation of the rink we still have). With Fourth of July later this week, I’d like to re-run my call for our own holiday parade, if not exactly a July Fourth one. What do you think?:
As part of my occasional Why Not series, today I ponder this: Why Not hold parades in Georgetown?
This thought occurred to me when I took in the Alexandria Scottish Christmas parade in Old Town last December. This parade–along with the equally Celtic St. Patrick’s Day Parade–always brings the best out of the Alexandria community. The route is lined, often several rows deep, with cheerful residents and visitors. The homeowners get into the spirit by decorating their houses with the St. Andrews flag and donning kilts. And following the parade, the shops are mobbed with people eager to knock a few names off their Christmas gift list.
The parades always leave me a little bittersweet. Does Georgetown lack the sort of community spirit that Old Town has? Or does it lack the opportunity to express it?
What I particularly like about the Old Town parade is that it spends most of its route winding through the quaint residential streets. Perhaps that’s why the residents get so into it, they’ve got no choice.
So why not bring that opportunity to Georgetown with a parade of its own?
For it to be a true community event, I think they would also have to wind their way through the sidestreets. This has the added benefit of not requiring the closure of arteries like M St. or Wisconsin Ave.
The Old Town parade last year was just .9 miles. I figure Georgetown need not be quite as long (at least not at first). Here’s a simple route I mocked up:
The parade would start at Visitation, in order to use the parking lot to stage the floats and bands, etc. The route would go down 35th to Prospect, over to 34th, up to O St. There it would wind it’s way down to Hyde-Addison, where the parade would end at the playground.
I asked around and could identify only one community parade in recent memory. In 2001, there was a parade to celebrate the neighborhood’s 150th250th anniversary. This parade, however shut down at least Wisconsin Ave.
Lots of boring questions come to mind, like how to organize it and how to address complaints about parking etc. But a more fun question pushes those aside: what should the parade be about? Christmas, St. Patrick’s and the Fourth of July already have stiff competition, so those wouldn’t be a good idea.
But how about Halloween? Georgetowners have been getting more and more into Halloween in recent years. It used to be just Nancy Taylor Bubes going over the top, but now she’s got plenty of company. So the spirit is already there. And the parade could include neighborhood kids showing off their costumes. There could even be a Halloween party at Hyde at the end! This is a better idea the more I think about it.
Hello and welcome to your July Northwest Georgetown ANC update!
I just spent a week in Portugal so I am just getting back up to speed, and as a result this update may be a bit briefer than usual. But here goes:
Bus Overhaul Complete
The long discussed bus overhaul has finally come as of today, June 29th. I have been trying to alert people to the changes for a while now, and hopefully those that rely on the bus are already up to speed. But there will certainly be some that only just find out when they walk up to a bus stop. Here are a couple links that should help:
The changes will surely be bumpy with unanticipated (and anticipated) difficulties. There is still a great deal of unfortunate service cuts in the new system, but hopefully the impact will not be as bad as feared.
New Boathouse Coming
This is not in my ANC district, but may interest my constituents regardless: after decades of discussions, Georgetown University is finally taking concrete steps towards constructing its own boathouse along the Potomac.
If approved, it would occupy the lot directly west of Key Bridge (where the public rentals of Key Bridge Boathouse currently take place). GU is gaining access to this property by exchanging a parcel it owns further up the river along the Capital Crescent Trail.
Here is what the boathouse could look like:
If approved, this boathouse will transform the waterfront, as well as this end of Water Street. We already have many issues involving how drivers come down this block. Many are mislead by their GPS units which incorrectly think the cars are on the Whitehurst Freeway. They get to the Capital Crescent trailhead and realize they can’t go further. They then do a dangerous u-turn right where people are exiting the trail and zoom off back east in frustration. Limiting this is already something we need to do. The boathouse and the new hotel will make that worse. That’s not a reason to not approve the boathouse, but it will put the problem in sharper focus.
Summer Break
The ANC has no meeting in August, so I will be skipping an August update. But I will continue to be reachable at 2e02@anc.dc.gov. Have a great summer!
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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