Photo by Chris DiGiamo.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Popular former Georgetown librarian moves out to Virginia.
- WaPo gives a thumbs up to the National Pinball Museum.
The Morning Metropolitan
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Carol Joynt’s Book is Out
This week, friend of GM and fellow Georgetown blogger, Carol Joynt, published her first book. It’s a memoir of her life, particularly her life after her husband, Howard Joynt, died and left her in serious trouble with the IRS.
At the center of the book is the story of Nathans. And GM’s going to take this chance to look back on his coverage of the demise of that neighborhood institution. After getting some of your memories stoked, go out and pick up a copy of Carol’s book.
GM wasn’t around Georgetown for Nathan’s glory days, but a couple years ago he dug up an odd little snippet of those days:
Canadian Club hid a case of its liquor somewhere in the District. Where was it?
Start at a place that was named for America’s most important city. See where a bark takes you. From there, go to what you can’t miss. When you have arrived, face in the direction of a past scandal that was uncovered and made public. Turn in the opposite direction and make tracks for a nearby Metro station. Ride three stops.
Come up and then find the way to a famous ending. Continue in the most obvious direction, when you know the time is right. Before it’s too late, head for the nearest bridge that can take you over water. If it becomes impossible to continue in a straight line, go toward a body of water and find a spot with three banks. From the highest bank, go in the direction of a bridge. When you’ve reach it, walk back 100 paces and you’ll be right over the hidden treasure: a whole case of Canadian Club.
It’s all yours if you’re first to find the person in charge and say, “C.C. please” with feeling.
So where was that case of Canadian Club?
Nathans.
Filed under History
The Morning Metropolitan
Canal dandelion by Marichica88
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Georgetown’s Peacock Cafe learns the hard way about bad timing.
- WJLA looks in the the Exxon condo issue and spells Lanier’s name phonetically.
- Progressive dinners are a blast. They’re even better when they’re for a good cause, like your local elementary school.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Where Georgetown’s Alleys Are
Detail of map courtesy of Rob Pitingolo.
Last week, using data from DC Data Catalog Rob Pitingolo published a map of all of DC’s alleys. GM’s cut and pasted above a detail of that map showing just Georgetown.
Take a look at Rob’s full map here and compare it to Georgetown’s. Georgetown appears to have fewer alleys than the rest of central DC. It’s interesting to speculate why that is. Presumably during the formation of the village’s grid, Georgetown was as dependent (if not more) on horses and stables as the rest of the historic city was. It’s odd that many large blocks don’t have any alleys at all (of course, larger homes had carriage passageways from the front to the back to allow a horse to be housed in the back without an alley). Continue reading
Filed under Transportation
The Morning Metropolitan
Hospital by ThisisBossi.
Good morning Georgetown, this is the latest:
- George’s attempt to modify its VA was rejected.
- Carol Joynt celebrates the release of her new book by checking in on one of the more swanky spring affairs in the neighborhood.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Not So Long Ago: Wisconsin and N St.
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This week for Not So Long Ago, GM heads up Wisconsin a little bit. Today it houses Reiss Limited, a British clothing importer. 18 years ago, however, this space housed one of the branches of the nearly gone and once great Kemp Mill Records.
Kemp Mill Records was founded in 1973 in Maryland (GM assumes it was Kemp Mill, MD, but he’s not positive). The store once had multiple branches spread out all over the DC-metropolitan area. Nowadays, they’ve just got one, in Hillcrest Heights, MD. But the memories are still all over the area.
GM’s not sure when Kemp Mill moved in, or when it moved out. But it was certainly gone by the time he moved to Georgetown in 2003, and it was probably gone well before then. The last good record store to shut down in Georgetown was the CD Warehouse in 2007, which was where Iceberry is now. Smash Records moved out a few years before that. The last true record shop was FYE in the mall, and that closed a few years ago. Granted, record shops are closing across the country, so the loss is hardly unique.
Reiss itself is not long for Georgetown. They plan to leave once their lease runs out. GM’s not heard whether a new tenant has been identified.
Here are the photos: Continue reading
Filed under Not So Long Ago
The Morning Metropolitan
Ching Ching Cha tea by Martin Kalfakovic.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Confusion rules as Georgetown Loews evacuated Sunday night.
- O and P St. construction getting messy.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
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