Photo by Cfpareda.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- The story of Henrietta Steptoe, Georgetown midwife born in 1769.
- Is this really Georgetown?
Tag Archives: History
The Morning Metropolitan
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Georgetown Skyline: 1910
As the debate over the future of the West Heating Plant continued over here, the discussion turned instead to the past. Reader Walter directed our attention to a photo at the Library of Congress from 1910 (or thereabouts) taken from the top of the Washington Monument. It’s part of a 360 degree panoramic, but given the high quality of the large format photography used at the time, we can zoom in and get a wonderful snapshot of Georgetown’s skyline.
Here’s the overall shot:
The immediate point being addressed by Walter in linking to the photo was that at the time a gigantic tank of gas was stored at the corner of M and 30th. Here’s a shot of it:
What immediately jumps out at you when looking at this shot is the ramshackle state of the waterfront. It was still a very active and industrial area. There are five significant smokestacks, of which two remain today. But your eyes are also drawn to GU:
Filed under History
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Funky Tee.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Ritz Carlton shakes up it’s dining options.
- Can you identify these Georgetown houses?
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Georgetown Bootlegger Honored By Ken Burns
Vodpod videos no longer available.
The other night, during part II of Ken Burns fantastic documentary on Prohibition, the camera turns to M St. and the story of Paul Ward, a bootlegger.
The clip shows a photo of the Thomas Sims Lee corner at 30th and M. But that’s not necessarily where the activity took place, since the basement of those buildings doesn’t go out to the alley. There are, however, a bunch of buildings down on the west end of M St., including Cady’s Alley, where that is the case. Either way, what a great story.
The series itself was absolutely fantastic, with photography and film from the period as captivating as we’ve come to expect from Burns’ work. If you missed it, watch the whole thing right here.
Here’s another clip of Donald Ward telling an even better story from his dad, which kicked off the episode:
Vodpod videos no longer available.GM really, really wishes he knew Donald Ward, he seems like he’s got a lot of great stories.
Filed under History
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Daquella Manera.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Hey Georgetown Voice, GM would be happy to share his newsroom with you, but he should warn you that it’s just a couch.
- The story of a fountain that went from Georgetown, to Truxton Circle, to rotting in the Maryland woods.
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Not So Long Ago: Wisconsin and Reservoir
Vodpod videos no longer available.
This week on Not So Long Ago, GM stops by Book Hill again. GM has to apologize about the current shot. There was a van and a new tree that sort of blocks the shot. But angles are angles, so that’s what we get when we try to replicate casual snapshots from a car 18 years ago.
What’s lurking behind the tree is Marston Luce. It’s been at 1651 Wisconsin Ave. for quite some time. However, in 1993 the space was occupied by Washington Video.
For GM’s younger readers: a video was a DVD that came in a large cartridge. You couldn’t skip “chapters”. You had to just press fast forward till it got to what you wanted. And when you finished, you had to rewind the thing for minutes before you could start watching it again.
For GM’s even younger readers: there once were stores that let you borrow movies. You had to physically go to the store, pick out the movies, go home with them, and then bring it back when you were done. And if you didn’t “rewind it” you could pay a fine. You weren’t even guaranteed that the store had what your wanted! You may have to go all the way there, find out they didn’t have it and then go home with a movie by someone called Pauly Shore, whose popularity scientists have yet to explain.*
Anyway, it’s interesting to see that the dominance of antique shops on Book Hill wasn’t in place yet by 1993.
Here are the photos: Continue reading
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The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by M.V. Jantzen.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Fascinating story from a Fourth of July in Georgetown, a long, long time ago.
- Don’t forget the Rose Park farmers market today.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Crews Begin to Remove Streetcar Tracks Today
Right now, the city is undergoing a long, long project to rehab the streetcar tracks on O and P Streets. They will pull up all the cobblestones (well, technically they’re Belgian blocks, but everyone just calls them cobblestones) and pull up the tracks and the yolks that support them. They will then reposition the yolks lower to be better aligned with the street grade, which has eroded a lot over the years. Then they will reposition the cobblestones and, hopefully, the streets will look beautiful and be a lot more safe to ride on.
But what won’t be riding on the tracks is streetcars themselves. The whole point of this exercise is to preserve in place the last remaining examples of Washington’s rare conduit power system. That’s a fancy way of saying the streetcars got their power from a buried power line. The streetcars accessed the powered line through a slot running down the center of the tracks. It looked a lot like a cable car slot, and for good reason because a lot of the streetcars in Washington were originally cable cars that were transitioned over to electric power. Continue reading
Filed under History
Plucked From the Comments
GM doesn’t normally do this, but he was especially touched by a comment he received the other day in response to posting the image of the old Roy Rogers on Wisconsin Ave. It’s from reader “George” and it’s a love letter to Georgetown’s past:
I remember the balloon man, I heard he was busted for selling heroin, he used to be outside of the Little Tavern, at Wisconsin and N St. And those were not “Hells Angels”, they were “Pagans”. They were scary! Used to be a lot of them in the middle sixties, down on M Street, when the auto parts stores were there, and the saddlery store, near Desperado’s, and the laundromat on M St. And the other Little Tavern. Near Stohlman’s Chevrolet, and Menehan’s and Hardware, around the corner was Weaver’s. And the Cellar Door. And the head shops selling trippy posters and black lights. Before “Up Against the Wall”. Remember when Britches first opened on Wisconsin, just below N? 1967. And Doc Dalinsky’s, Mrs. Crocker’s lamp shop, Dorcas Hardin’s dress shop. Bill Fitzgerald’s Wine and Cheese Shop, next to Peoples Drug Store. Or Coffee, Tea and Spice? Rive Gauche! The French Market, Magruders, the Sealtest dairy at 25th and M St? They delivered! Rich’s shoe store. John Learmont’s Records and Books. Arpad’s Antiques. Long before, my mom kept her horse in the stable at 23rd and P Street. We used to take the street car to the amusement park at Glen Echo! My sister and I once got stuck there because our nanny didn’t have the 5 cents for the return trip. Buying our goldfish at Woolworth’s. Exotics pets up at Friendly Beasties. And the man with his haunting bell, who would walk the streets in the summer, sharpening knives. Lad Mills selling Esso on Que Street. Georgetown was a great place to grow up, and still is. Continue reading
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Not So Long Ago: Prospect and Wisconsin
Vodpod videos no longer available.
This week in Not So Long Ago, GM takes a look the corner of Prospect and Wisconsin. Nowadays it’s a Restoration Hardware. In 1993, it was a Roy Rogers of all things.
This is the first of several fast food restaurants in GM’s pile of old photos. In many ways this is Exhibit A in terms of arguing that a lot of people look at Georgetown’s recent past with some rose colored glasses. It wasn’t all Olsson’s and Neames.
Here’s a static version of those shots: Continue reading
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