The Georgetown Metropolitan

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.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Large house next to Evermay for sale.
• GU mints a lot of Fulbrights!

Dumbarton Oaks

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM checks out a behind the scene photo from the epochal film St. Elmo’s Fire.

The movie was filmed in Georgetown in the fall of 1984. This shot shows the cast sitting in a Jeep CJ between filming. They’re parked at the corner of P and 31st. Seated are Rob Lowe, Mare Winingham, Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and Demi Moore, a veritable quorum of the Brat Pack.

This set up appears in the film. Here they are driving down P St.:

Later they’re shown on O St.:

A closeup scene:

Fun fact: the film came out June 1985. By November DC adopted its first seat belt laws. Coincidence???

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Useful updated food and drink guide for Georgetown.
• Water Taxi service resumes.

1500 block of 33rd St.

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is featuring a photo recently featured by the fantastic Old Time DC account. It shows the Georgetown waterfront sometime in the 1980s.

For those relatively new to the city, you might be shocked at the appearance of a large surface parking lot taking space that is now a beautiful riverfront park. But you really don’t have to be that much of an old timer to remember it. It only fully disappeared about 2006 when construction of the park began in earnest. Here’s what it looked like from the sky in 2005:

It’s probably fair to say that until the new park was completed, it was literally centuries since the Georgetown waterfront was a calm and idyllic location as it is now. Before the large parking lot, it was a field of industrial plants and train tracks: