The Georgetown Metropolitan

In honor of the passing of Alan Rubin, co-founder of the Biograph, GM is re-running a piece from 2013 about all the old defunct movie theaters around Georgetown. Enjoy:

Jonathan O’Connell of the Washington Post ran a fantastic feature yesterday on the history of theaters in DC, with a map showing where historic theaters were and existing theaters are. Definitely check it out. What struck GM when reading it is that all the buildings that once held movie theaters in Georgetown are to a large extent intact from their movie days. Of course, none of the historic theaters still are theaters, but it’s still a good excuse to tally them up!

Above you see a photo of the Key Theater. Of the historic theaters, it was on the young side. It was opened in 1969 and closed in 1997. Nowadays it (along with the former Roy Rogers next door) is occupied by Restoration Hardware.

Photo by Joe.

Here is the Biograph. It was even younger than the Key Theater. It was built in 1976 in a former car dealership and lasted until 1996. Like the Georgetown Theater discussed below, in its later years it mixed art house with adult fare, but was unable to stave off closure. Like many former theaters in DC, it now houses a CVS.

Photo by Tony.

Of course, we all know that the Georgetown theater building, gutted and decrepit as it may be, is still around. The facade as we now know it, however, is thankfully not long for this world. Architect Robert Bell has a contract to buy the building and plans to restore the neon sign and rip off the ugly formstone (and maybe send it Baltimore where they can’t get enough of it). (UPDATE: Of course you are likely familiar with how well that turned out:

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• After a long delay, Danny Meyer’s fast casual restaurant Dig is coming to the old Little Tavern building at N and Wisconsin.
• Alan Rubin, co-founder of Georgetown’s old Biograph theater, passed away.

Yesterday, WMATA officially opened the second phase of the Silver Line. This extension will take the line from Reston all the way out to Ashburn. And most notably, it will stop at Dulles International Airport on its way. After being open sixty years (tomorrow), Dulles airport will finally have a rail connection. But will you use it?

The first response that most Washingtonians would likely offer to that question is “of course not, because I’d rather crawl to my ultimate destination than take Dulles.” And, fair enough. But sometimes a trip to Dulles is really unavoidable. Will you still drive or will you take the Metro?

On the face of it, it might seem like a fairly obvious answer for most people. From Georgetown, even in the middle of evening rush hour, it is only likely to take 30-40 minutes to drive there:

But keep in mind, where are you actually driving to? Are you parking in the short term lot? If so, that gets really expensive, really quickly. If you’re planning on a trip of more than a few days, you’re likely going to want to use the long term lots. And parking, waiting for the shuttle bus, and riding the shuttle bus over to the terminal can easily tack on another half hour. You could be looking at 1:15 hours from door-to-door at that point.

Now how long will the Metro take?

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Jack Kent Cooke’s old house sells for over $7 mil.
• The story of one of the few white people (still) buried at Mt. Zion Cemetery.

3300 block of Volta Place

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is checking out one of the more dowdy-sounding affairs from Georgetown’s past. You are probably familiar with the Georgetown House Tour and the Georgetown Garden Tour, both long time fixtures in the neighborhood. But did you know there was (at least once) a Georgetown Thanksgiving Preview?

This fundraiser, which took place in 1957, was put on by the Garden Club (which also puts on the Garden Tour). It gave attendees the opportunity to tour eight historic homes in Georgetown, each elaborately decorated for Thanksgiving. As the Washington Star described:

The article goes on to describe a handful of the homes on the tour (which all seemed to have been located on the east side for some reason) but this description got GM particularly interested:

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• What homes sold in October.
• Rising sophomores at GU concerned about housing options.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and GM wanted to pass on a tip to you to consider ordering your bird through Stachowski’s.

Here’s the link to order. The offer excellent Amish heirloom turkeys. GM has been ordering his through them for years and they never disappoint. And there’s something so traditional about ordering your turkey through your neighborhood butcher rather than picking up a factory farm-produced bird at the supermarket.

GM has one bit of warning though! The giblet stash in the turkey has included the entire head and feet! Talk about throwback…

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Cafe Milano turns 30.
• More on what Eastbanc has planned for their development at Wisconsin and Prospect.

The Board of Elections released the last big batch of votes last night, reflecting the mail-in and drop-off ballots it received on election day. And it has grown my lead to 200 to 117. So I feel comfortable now calling it a victory. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

When I was going door-to-door, I emphasized how my number one priority is constituent services. And I will be dedicated to living up to that promise. So come January, I want to be one of the first people you think to call when something goes wrong around the neighborhood. Let me deal with it so that you can go back to living your life.

Also part of that service is my plan to establish a monthly newsletter that will keep you informed on what’s going on in our SMD and around Georgetown generally. I am currently looking into the best way to deliver that newsletter so that it’s ready to go when I start next year. Stay tuned!