Boatman off the Georgetown waterfront by Javier Psilocybin.
Good morning Georgetown. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Today GM adds another entry to his occasional Circa series, wherein he looks back to a particular snap-shot of Georgetown in an earlier time. Up next: 1980.
On the eve of the 1980 election, all of Washington was on the edge of its seat following the close race between Carter and Reagan. However, at least a few were out in the streets looking for some booze. And not just any booze: Canadian Club Whiskey.
The reason they were out on the streets looking is that Canadian Club hid a case of its liquor somewhere in the District. Where was it?
Start at a place that was named for America’s most important city. See where a bark takes you. From there, go to what you can’t miss. When you have arrived, face in the direction of a past scandal that was uncovered and made public. Turn in the opposite direction and make tracks for a nearby Metro station. Ride three stops.
Come up and then find the way to a famous ending. Continue in the most obvious direction, when you know the time is right. Before it’s too late, head for the nearest bridge that can take you over water. If it becomes impossible to continue in a straight line, go toward a body of water and find a spot with three banks. From the highest bank, go in the direction of a bridge. When you’ve reach it, walk back 100 paces and you’ll be right over the hidden treasure: a whole case of Canadian Club.
It’s all yours if you’re first to find the person in charge and say, “C.C. please” with feeling.
So where was that case of Canadian Club? Continue reading
Filed under Circa
Courtesy of WETA
This week WETA is broadcasting an excellent documentary on the history of Washington through the 1960’s. Given that this included the Kennedy era, unsurprisingly Georgetown is prominently featured.
Besides rhapsodizing briefly on the link between the Kennedy mystique and Georgetown, the documentary’s first specific Georgetown reference is to mention the late great Rive Gauche restaurant. The fancy French restaurant on the northwest corner of Wisconsin and M was the standard of fine cuisine in the city in its time. Washington native Maury Povich states in the documentary “We always thought when we were young that you had to have a lot of money to go to Rive Gauche. That was picking at High Cotton.”
The documentary also briefly mentions Clyde’s (which opened in 1963, inspired at least in part by a stray New Yorker left lying around a beatnik hang-out on 31st St.) and Blues Alley. Continue reading
Filed under History
Georgetown houses by aloucha.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
GM occasionally receives an email inquiring about a particular building (e.g. “what’s going on with that construction?”). For instance yesterday he received this note:
I don’t know if you have ever noticed the building that stands on the SE corner of M and 31st Streets…It’s currently occupied by German television Channel 2, I believe. Anyway it is under scaffolding right now and I wonder what they are up to. It’s a beautiful old building but had some regrettable alterations – from a purist’s point of view – made to it over the years.
Ask, and you shall receive.
The current tenant of that space is ZDF (that’s “Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen” or, as the reader suggested, “German Channel 2”). ZDF is a German television station based in Mainz, Germany. Continue reading
Filed under Development
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
1935 Photograph from Library of Congress - Label "Poor children playing on sidewalk, Georgetown, Washington, D.C."
A scene you just don’t see that much more: groups of kids playing on the sidewalk, barefoot, and without adult supervision. More street kids after the jump:
Filed under History
The Georgetown Metropolitan is proud to present the first in an ongoing series of thought pieces titled “Why Not”, wherein we explore different ideas for our neighborhood that are not typically discussed. The first installment relates to the street names. As described ad naseum last week, most of the streets in Georgetown used to have different names. They were changed in 1880 to be consistent with the rest of the District’s street grid. In the interests of celebrating Georgetown’s past as an independent city, should we consider changing them back?
Of course not, but there’s another option for recognizing the past that comes from the Crescent City. Find out after the jump:
Running between N and O St. is a road that is mostly called Dumbarton St. However, in more than a few places it is called Dumbarton Ave. For instance, Dumbarton United Methodist Church uses the address “3133 Dumbarton Avenue”. Also, several homes are labeled with “Dumbarton Ave.” Hell, as shown above, Google Maps can’t make up its mind and just calls it both.
So what’s the deal? Why the split personality? For the answers, follow GM back through the 18th and 19th centuries after the jump:
Filed under History
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