The Georgetown Metropolitan

The return of the canal boat rides to Georgetown has been a smashing success. Tourists are flocking to it, and the news coverage has been fantastic. Their return took years of hard work by Georgetown Heritage (not to mention $1.5 million). On top of it, a huge amount of repair work of the canal itself needed to be done in order for the boat to have something functional to actually ride through.

So it’s all clear sailing for the rides from now on?

Sadly no. There is still quite a bit of canal work that needs to be completed in order to preserve it for generations more. So as a result, the canal boat rides will pause again in about a month. And they will remain paused all the way until 2025. That’s how serious the work is that needs to be done to shore up the canal. As described in a release from Georgetown Heritage:

The Georgetown section of the C&O Canal will be drained for an estimated 30 months to allow for a major restoration of Locks 1, 2, and 5, as well as critical valve and wall repairs. This will enable the Canal to continue to hold water and host the boat program for generations to come. NPS will host a virtual public meeting this Fall to share additional details about this work. Visit their website for meeting announcements, coming soon….

Boat tours are estimated to return in 2025, and future Canal boat seasons will run annually from April – October. During the upcoming seasons, Georgetown Heritage will partner with NPS to host an interpretive program while the boat is in dry dock near Lock 4 of the Canal – offering visitors a unique way to experience the boat.

So get your rides in now!

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice old photo of Key Bridge under construction.
• Georgetowner staff raising money to fight cancer via bike.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Flashy new sushi restaurant coming to the former L2 space in Cady’s Alley.
• Research indicates that William Gaston, who GU’s Gaston Hall is named after, owned 163 enslaved people and advocated against equal citizenship for African Americans.

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM would like to consider a long lost school building. If GM were to try to compile a Georgetown version of James Goode’s “Capital Losses“, he would certainly include near the top of the list the old Curtis School.

This elementary school once stood on O St., basically right where Hyde-Addison’s playground now sits. As GM explored in this video, the Curtis School was the first of the modern municipal schools built in Georgetown (1875):

(There were, of course, school buildings in Georgetown long before the Curtis School. The Lancaster School, for instance, started teaching students in 1811. It still stands as a private home at 3126 O St.)

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice coverage of Art All Night by the Georgetowner (which GM should note is just as cherished at the Current was!).
• Graduate housing proposed for the former Key Bridge Exxon site. (This proposal seems like a possible negotiation maneuver, since the city is eyeing eminent domain for the property.)

Next week the ANC will be meeting for its October session. The meetings are still via Zoom and begins at 6:30.

No items jumped out at GM particularly, but one thing he’d like to note is all the updates. What he means by this is that each month, the ANC receives updates from organizations around the neighborhood. It’s a feature that has increased a lot in the last couple years versus the past, and GM thinks it’s great. With the loss of a weekly newspaper like the old Georgetown Current, it’s really hard for organizations to get the word out to the public about what they’re up to. While a few minutes of time in an ANC meeting is not the same as that old cherished paper, it’s still pretty good.

And this month there seems to be even more updates than normal. The organizations include Safeway (talking about their somewhat chaotic renovations), Office of People’s Counsel (talking about changes to water bills), the Four Seasons Hotel (talking about their vision for the neighborhood), Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy, the new MacArthur High School, and Georgetown Main Streets (who present most meetings, as they have so much going on).

If you want to get up on most issues happening around the neighborhood, with all these updates just listening in for the first hour or so of the monthly meeting will do the trick.

Anyway, here’s the full agenda:

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU drops mask requirement.
• GM used to run a series on birds in Georgetown, but this event is probably a lot better informed! It’s at the Georgetown library October 5th at 6:30.