The Georgetown Metropolitan

Dumbarton Oaks

You may have noticed puffy white flowers on trees around the neighborhood. But these trees are not the beloved cherries; they are the dreaded bradford pear. GM wrote about them as part of his Know Your Trees series and here is that article again:

Today on Know Your Trees, GM explores a tree even worse than the ginkgo: the bradford pear.

Badford pear trees are trees that often get confused for cherry trees since they bloom with poofy white flowers around the same time that cherries do. But they are not cherries, and their flowers are not quite as attractive. They lack the subtle shade of pink and have small green leaves:

Once you realize how to distinguish a bradford pear from a cherry, you realize they are everywhere. Where once you thought you saw street after street lined with cherries, you now see pears.

And if the only distinguishing factor was that the flowers are not quite as attractive as cherries, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But that’s not the case.

Bradford pears are invasive. They were introduced in the 1960s as a sterile ornamental tree. But they turned out not to be sterile. And they started to spread like wildfire.

And the worst thing about bradford pears is that they grow so fast that their limbs are extremely weak and fragile. There was a lovely row of them on GM’s block a while ago, but after every slightly serious storm, the street would be littered with broken boughs. And the trees only have a lifespan of 20-25 years, which is extremely short for large trees.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Learn about America’s most dangerous female spy at this month’s Q&A Cafe.
• Unsurprisingly, Patrick Ewing let go from the Hoya’s men’s team.

Tudor Place

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Large N St. home to hit market for $26 million.
• Signs that the Streets market is still coming to the old 7-Eleven spot on P St.

It’s time for the monthly update for neighbors of Hyde Addison Elementary School! 

Thank you to everyone who participated in the recent Hyde PTA fundraisers (the 1310 Kitchen & Bar Pot-Pie-athon and the February 8 fundraiser at In Bocca Al Lupo).  Over $2000 was raised—funds which go directly to the school.  I will let you know about more fundraisers this spring!

PK3 and PK4 Lottery and Prospective Family Open House

The deadline to apply for the lottery for PK3 and PK4 at Hyde was March 1.  Results will be available on March 31.  

Hyde Addison has an in-person Prospective Family Open House on Friday March 10 at 10am at the school.  Please RSVP at: bit.ly/haeopenhouses; it will begin with a presentation, so plan to be on time!

Some of you may end up trying to decide about Hyde vs a private school (or another public school).  Please message me if you are interested in learning more about Hyde and making those decisions.  We decided to send our children to Hyde instead of Beauvoir and I am happy to explain how we reached that decision.

Hyde’s PTA is now on Instagram! Follow it to keep in touch about all the goings on at Hyde!

instagram.com/hydeaddisonpta

A new bridal shop is coming to Book Hill. And it will likely sound familiar, but misleadingly so. The shop is called Hitched and it’s coming to 1663 Wisconsin Ave.

The new shop specializes in wedding bands. It was started in Philadelphia by a married couple that was frustrated by their own search for rings. This will be their third location.

The reason the store’s name might sound familiar is that from 2005 until 2018 there was a shop of the same name just down the street. This Hitched was founded in Georgetown by two women and it focused on wedding gowns. It was held in high regard, particularly for its lovely window displays.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Write up of the last ANC meeting.
• DPR explains its plans for the Volta Park ball field.

Dumbarton Oaks

It seems just about every clothing store that has opened in Georgetown in recent years (and there’s been a lot!) have been primarily, if not exclusively, targeted towards women. The good news is that a new clothing store is coming that is a men’s store! The bad news is that it’s replacing one of the other few men’s clothing stores in the neighborhood.

The new store is Todd Snyder, a New York-based chain with just a handful of other locations (although its 2015 acquisition by American Eagle Outfitters probably portends a lot more stores). Funnily enough, I recently was looking for a roll neck sweater and found the store just through a Google search. And the sweater turned out to be pretty good, for what it’s worth!

It will be replacing Billy Reid, a southern-based chain that opened in 2013. So the total number of men’s clothing stores in Georgetown will remain the same.

Billy Reid, of course, replaced the Pizzeria Uno that occupied the address from 1981 until it closed in 2012. Prior to that it was several relatively short lived places, including Potagerie and Crumpets.