May 4, 2011 · 10:00 am

Not So Long Ago: Wisconsin & M

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This week for Not So Long Ago, GM sticks around M and Wisconsin. It’s a bit of a closeup shot, so it’s just one store. But it’s a notable one.

W.T. Weaver & Sons was founded in Georgetown in 1889. It was a general hardware store for most of its existence. Here’s a shot of this block 85 years ago (i.e. So Long Ago):

Four generations later, and Weaver Hardware is still family owned and opened. They’re still even at the same address, just not on the first floor anymore. While as late as 1993 they were still a general purpose hardware store–as the photo shows–since then they have transitioned to a specialty in decorative hardware. The only general hardware store left in Georgetown is the one over on 35th St. (and that one doesn’t carry that much–GM heads up to the fantastic Glover Park Hardware for his needs).

Those purveyors of quasi-pornography, Abercrombie and Fitch, now occupy this storefront. GM’s never been inside, mostly because he doesn’t want to spend the rest of the day smelling like a 15 year old boy heading off to Junior Prom. He sure wishes Weaver would get back to his roots…

Here are the shots: Continue reading →

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May 4, 2011 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Canal cat by Byron Peebles.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

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May 3, 2011 · 2:00 pm

The Georgetown Metropolis

C&o Canal

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May 3, 2011 · 10:00 am

ANC Round Up: Disconnect Edition

Last night the ANC met for its May session. And to the extent it had an overriding theme, it would be one of a disconnect between neighbors.

EastBanc

The first case that had this disconnect was the EastBanc project at the Exxon station. This has been discussed here before. Essentially, EastBanc wants to build a five story building where the Key Bridge Exxon now stands.

This would cut off a part of the currently magnificent view enjoyed by the homes on Prospect St. When the ANC first reviewed this project, it took the neighbors’ side, but not aggressively so. It asked that OGB to seriously consider the effect on the Prospect St. neighbors’ views, but they didn’t really come that hard against it, at least not in the resolution.

So last night, EastBanc was back with some modest tweaks to the design. Primarily it reconfigured the facade to be less modern and to “read more” (i.e. kinda look) like a set of rowhouses. Apparently they made a few modest changes to the building’s positioning, but they were all pretty minor.

The neighbors were back again. The criticisms seem to fall into two buckets: the effect the building’s height has on the views of the Prospect St. neighbors and the impact the building would have on the “gateway” of Georgetown.

In GM’s opinion, the “gateway” argument is really just a tarted up way to complain about the height. Right now there’s a gas station, and GM suspects a lot of the people complaining about the height would be perfectly fine if the gas station stayed. Besides, as EastBanc argued last night, the building would be on your periphery as you come across the Key Bridge. Your eyes are directed straight at Dixie Liquors, not the Exxon: Continue reading →

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May 3, 2011 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • GM noticed a few changes over the weekend to M St. shops: White House Black Market is gone, and Zed’s is now called Das.
  • Also, CB2 is open now. GM went to an opening party for it on Friday, and it was just weird. It was like they imported chic party-goers from New York to sip champagne on the couches while being photographed. How do you get that job?

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May 2, 2011 · 2:00 pm

The Georgetown Metropolis

Dumbarton Oaks

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May 2, 2011 · 10:00 am

ANC Preview: EastBanc Back Again

Tonight, the ANC meets for its May session. It looks like a relatively uneventful agenda, but that’s never stopped the ANC from going long before!

EastBanc

EastBanc returns again tonight to discuss one of their proposed large scale projects. This time its the Verizon building project on Wisconsin just south of the canal. The project has gone through several revisions. The first major change was to shift away from an all-stone project to a mixture of brick on the Wisconsin Ave. side and stone facing the canal. Last month, however, the Old Georgetown Board still objected to the design. The objections focused on the imposing nature of the stone wall facing the canal, and the confusing facade facing Wisconsin (GM’s seen it, and it is a bit jumbled).

We’ll see tonight how they respond.

Capital Bikeshare

Despite efforts to identify locations in the neighborhood for new Capital Bikeshare stations, DDOT proposed two other locations, neither of which make a ton of sense (one is at the east end of Rose Park, the other is in the Long and Foster parking lot on Wisconsin Ave.)

Tonight the ANC is taking the first steps to politely request that DDOT consider the locations that the ANC first identified. There is a bit of a fear that if the ANC complains too much about the proposed stations, DDOT will simply take them away. The ANC has to strike the right tone by saying that Georgetown definitely wants these two stations, they just need to be relocated to more desirable spots.

One spot that was not previously considered, but which might make a ton of sense, is at that triangle park between Pennsylvania Ave. and M St. next to the gas station. The park itself is owned by the federal government, and DDOT hasn’t worked out an arrangement with the feds yet to locate stations on federal land. But the sidewalk next to the park is city owned. And with the park next to the sidewalk, a station could go on the city-owned sidewalk without blocking the way (pedestrians would just walk around the station onto the federally owned part). While this still wouldn’t get a station into the residential blocks, it would provide a better option for lower East Village residents than currently exists. Continue reading →

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May 2, 2011 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

French Market by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • Apparently its the policy of DDOT now to allow you to reserve hundreds of feet of on-street parking for private events. At least that sure seemed to be the case at the old Graham house, where Mark Ein lent his unused mansion out for a WHCD brunch on Saturday. Signs reserved street parking on 30th from Dent all the way up to R, and on R all the way to 29th. Then a coach bus simply parked on the north side of R, basically blocking one lane of traffic. This was a huge cluster$#%^ and GM is going to get to the bottom of it. (GM noticed similar signs on Q St. in front of the Bowie-Sevier mansion). It’s perfectly reasonable for street parking to be reserved for moving trucks or city work, etc., but it absolutely shouldn’t be set aside for a party simply because the requester is rich. For what it’s worth, Katharine Graham never pulled that crap. She used her lawn or the cemetery.
  • But hey, GM hopes that didn’t ruin your weekend. How incredibly lively the neighborhood was on Saturday? GM only wished more people left their cars at home.

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April 29, 2011 · 2:00 pm

The Georgetown Metropolis

Dumbarton Oaks

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April 29, 2011 · 10:00 am

Signs Giving a Mixed Message on Canal Rd.

When you approach Georgetown from the west on Canal Rd., you’re faced with a couple of options. You can stay on Canal as it becomes M St. and enter Georgetown. You can, of course, hang a right onto the Key Bridge and head over to Virginia. And, finally, you can take a right on to the Whitehurst Freeway and quickly skirt around Georgetown to Foggy Bottom, where you can continue on to K St. or take the E St. Expressway.

So if your ultimate destination is downtown, not Georgetown, the best choice is normally the Whitehurst. And the first signs you see as you approach Georgetown tell you as much:

The problem is that shortly after these signs, you’re presented with another set of signs that sure seem to be telling drivers to stay on M St. if they’re heading downtown: Continue reading →

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