Random Updates
Yes, this is a real bar. They are in the process of renovating the inside -- it's two levels and an apartment on the third floor -- and there is a red and white Help Wanted sign in the front window. The awning has been there for a while but it's been a question of is the place coming or going. It's apparently coming.
(Taken May 6, 2004, 8:55am)
The Old Stone House
This is the Old Stone House on M Street NW. It is, according to the placard, the only surviving pre-Revolutionary War building in Washington DC
Here is said placard :-)
There's a small garden beside the building.
Tulip trees are one of the first spring flowers in DC. This one is just to the right of the entrance to the garden.
Canal
The Chesapeake & Ohio canal and towpath runs from Washington DC to Cumberland Maryland. The National Park Service maintains the park. This is the view at midday down the canal back toward town from the bridge that is right beside my office building
The NPS also runs a canal boat tour during the summer. The folks who run the tour dress in period costume. During the winter they store it in a dry lock because the canal freezes.
Houses and Shopping
M Street has been the center of shopping in Georgetown for as long as the settlement has been here. There used to be a lot more bars along M Street; largely what you find now is art galleries and high-end boutique stores.
This gallery is on M Street about a block down from the Old Stone House. The giant clothespin just amuses me.
Random Movie tie-in: this is the "Georgetown Amoco" that Billy worked at in St. Elmo's Fire (it was actually in the movie). It was an Amoco station until about a year ago when these folks I've never heard of took it over. Even though it wasn't called St. Elmo's, the actual bar was on Wisconsin Avenue but the building fascades have changed so much you can't really find it any more.
Georgetown has two basic sorts of houses: row houses and mansions. These flat-front, Federal style row houses are fairly typical.
Bay front houses are sprinkled all throughout Georgetown. Walk-ups are not as common as street level entrances. Regardless of the front door's elevation, houses that push right up to the street with just about no front yard are pretty much typical.
Georgetown also includes a lot of mansions. The building on the corner is an apartment building now but at one time it was a single family home.
This one is still a single family home. The picture below is the left side of what is above; you can see what used to be the slave quarters at the back of the house. The distance has been bridged by renovation and the outbuildings incorporated into the main house.
Alleys are a DC feature and Georgetown is riddled with little alleys that used to just go to carriage houses.
Random Stuff
The daffodils along Rock Creek Parkway are another one of the five earliest signs of spring in DC. Rock Creek Park is something of a dividing line in DC. East of the park, where I live, is generally considered less desirable by people who don't know much about the city. Georgetown is west of Rock Creek Park.
This church is on my walk a back to the subway. You really can't get the full effect here but the statute in the foreground is, I think, a Czech war memorial of some sort. The statue is very Lenin-esque, coat flapping, stern features. With the clouds in the sky it just seemed like a neat picture.
This building is also on my walk to the subway. In the 1800s it was a home for "wayward" girls. Now it houses three law firms and an architecture practice.