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Georgetown is a historic
neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
, and commercial and entertainment district located in
Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
Washington, D.C., situated along the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
. Founded in 1751 in the
Province of Maryland The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S. state of Maryl ...
, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years. Georgetown remained a separate
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the g ...
until 1871 when the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...
created a new consolidated government for the whole
District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, N ...
. A separate act, passed in 1895, specifically repealed Georgetown's remaining local ordinances and renamed Georgetown's streets to conform with those in the City of Washington. The primary commercial corridors of Georgetown are the intersection of
Wisconsin Avenue Wisconsin Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs. The southern terminus begins in Georgetown just north of the Potomac River, at an intersection with K Street under the elevated Whitehurst Freeway. The ...
and M Street, which contain high-end shops, bars, restaurants, and the Georgetown Park enclosed shopping mall. The
Washington Harbour Washington Harbour is a Class-A mixed-use development located at 3000 and 3050 K Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The southern edge of the development borders the Potomac River on the Georgetown waterfront. Designed by ...
waterfront restaurants are located to the south on K Street, between 30th and 31st Streets. Georgetown is home to the main campus of Georgetown University and numerous other landmarks, such as the Volta Bureau and the Old Stone House, the oldest house in Washington. The
embassies A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
of
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, France,
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
,
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,
Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...
,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
,
Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
, Ukraine and
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
are located in Georgetown.


History


Early history

Situated on the
Fall Line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is typically prominent where rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the coas ...
, Georgetown was the farthest point upstream that oceangoing boats could navigate the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
. In 1632, English fur trader Henry Fleet documented an American Indian village of the
Nacotchtank The Nacotchtank were an indigenous Algonquian people who lived in the area of what is now Washington, D.C. during the 17th century. The Nacotchtank village was within the modern borders of the District of Columbia along the intersection of the ...
people called Tohoga on the site of present-day Georgetown and established trade there. The area was then part of the
Province of Maryland The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S. state of Maryl ...
, an English colony. George Gordon constructed a tobacco inspection house along the Potomac in approximately 1745. The site was already a tobacco trading post when the inspection house was built. Warehouses, wharves, and other buildings were then constructed around the inspection house, and it quickly became a small community. It did not take long before Georgetown grew into a thriving port, facilitating trade and shipments of goods from colonial Maryland. In 1751, the legislature of the Province of Maryland authorized the purchase of of land from Gordon and George Beall at the price of £280. A survey of the town was completed in February 1752. Since Georgetown was founded during the reign of
George II of Great Britain , house = Hanover , religion = Protestant , father = George I of Great Britain , mother = Sophia Dorothea of Celle , birth_date = 30 October / 9 November 1683 , birth_place = Herrenhausen Palace,Cannon. or Lein ...
, some speculate that the town was named after him. Another theory is that the town was named after its founders, George Gordon and George Beall. The Maryland Legislature formally issued a charter and incorporated the town in 1789. (Although Georgetown was never officially made a city, it was later referred to as the "City of Georgetown" in several 19th-century acts of Congress.)
Robert Peter Robert Peter (July 22, 1726 – Nov 15, 1806) was an American politician, merchant, and landowner who served as the first mayor of Georgetown. Early life and family Robert Peter was born on July 22, 1726 in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, S ...
, an early area merchant in the tobacco trade, became Georgetown's first mayor in 1790. Col. John Beatty established the first church in Georgetown, a Lutheran church on High Street. Stephen Bloomer Balch established a Presbyterian church in 1784. In 1795, the Trinity Catholic Church was built, along with a parish school-house. Construction of St. John's Episcopal Church began in 1797 but paused for financial reasons until 1803, and the church was finally consecrated in 1809. Banks in Georgetown included the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, which was established in 1814. Other banks included the Bank of Washington, Patriotic Bank, Bank of the Metropolis, and the Union and Central Banks of Georgetown. Newspapers in Georgetown included the ''Republican Weekly Ledger'', which was the first paper, started in 1790. ''The Sentinel'' was first published in 1796 by Green, English & Co. Charles C. Fulton began publishing the ''Potomac Advocate'', which was started by Thomas Turner. Other newspapers in Georgetown included the ''Georgetown Courier'' and the ''Federal Republican''. William B. Magruder, the first postmaster, was appointed on February 16, 1790, and in 1795, a custom house was established on Water Street. General James M. Lingan served as the first collector of the port. In the 1790s, City Tavern, the Union Tavern, and the Columbian Inn opened and were popular throughout the 19th century. Of these taverns, only the City Tavern remains today, as a private social club (the City Tavern Club) located near the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street.


Establishment of the federal capital

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of t ...
frequented Georgetown, including Suter's Tavern, where he worked out many deals to acquire land for the new Federal City. A key figure in the land deals was a local merchant named
Benjamin Stoddert Benjamin Stoddert (1751 – 18 December 1813) was the first United States Secretary of the Navy from 1 May 1798 to 31 March 1801. Early life and education Stoddert was born in Charles County, Maryland in 1751, the son of Captain Thomas Stoddert ...
, who arrived in Georgetown in 1783. He had previously served as Secretary to the Board of War under the
Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...
. Stoddert partnered with General Uriah Forrest to become an original proprietor of the
Potomac Company The Potomac Company (spelled variously as Patowmack, Potowmack, Potowmac, and Compony) was created in 1785 to make improvements to the Potomac River and improve its navigability for commerce. The project is perhaps the first conceptual seed pla ...
. Stoddert and other Potomac landowners agreed to a land transfer deal to the federal government at a dinner at Forrest's home in Georgetown on March 28, 1791. Stoddert bought land within the boundaries of the federal district, some of it at the request of Washington for the government, and some on speculation. He also purchased stock in the federal government under Hamilton's assumption-of-debt plan. The speculative purchases were not, however, profitable and caused Stoddert much difficulty before his appointment as
Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head ( chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the ...
by the second President,
John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...
. Stoddert was rescued from his debts with the help of
William Marbury William Marbury (November 7, 1762 – March 13, 1835) was a highly successful American businessman and one of the " Midnight Judges" appointed by United States President John Adams the day before he left office. He was the plaintiff in the landm ...
, later of ''
Marbury v. Madison ''Marbury v. Madison'', 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, meaning that American courts have the power to strike down laws and statutes t ...
'' fame, and also a Georgetown resident. He ultimately owned Halcyon House, at the corner of 34th and Prospect Streets. The Forrest-Marbury House on M Street is currently the embassy of Ukraine. After the establishment of the federal capital, Georgetown became an independent municipal government within the District of Columbia, of which there were three: Alexandria, D.C., Georgetown, D.C., and Washington, D.C. Georgetown, D.C., was in the new Washington County, D.C.; the District's other county was Alexandria County, D.C. (now
Arlington County, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...
and the independent city of
Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. Th ...
).


19th century

By the 1820s, the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
had become silted up and was not navigable up to Georgetown. Construction of the
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac Canal, w ...
began in July 1828, to link Georgetown to
Harper's Ferry Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. It is located in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The population was 285 at the 2020 census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, where the U.S. stat ...
, Virginia (
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
after 1863). But the canal was soon in a race with the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
and got to Cumberland eight years after the railroad, a faster mode of transport, and at the cost of $77,041,586. It was never profitable. From its beginning to December 1876, the canal earned $35,659,055 in revenue, while expending $35,746,301. The Canal nonetheless provided an economic boost for Georgetown. In the 1820s and 1830s, Georgetown was an important shipping center. Tobacco and other goods were transferred between the canal and shipping on the Potomac River; salt was imported from Europe, and sugar and molasses were imported from the
West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Grea ...
. These shipping industries were later superseded by coal and flour industries, which flourished with the C & O Canal providing cheap power for
mills Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to: As a name * Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin * Mills (given name) *Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine Places Un ...
and other industry. In 1862, the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company began a
horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...
line running along M Street in Georgetown and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, easing travel between the two cities. The municipal governments of Georgetown and the City and County of Washington were formally revoked by Congress effective June 1, 1871, at which point its governmental powers were vested within the District of Columbia. The streets in Georgetown were renamed in 1895 to conform to the
street name A street name is an identifying name given to a street or road. In toponymic terminology, names of streets and roads are referred to as hodonyms (from Greek ‘road’, and ‘name’). The street name usually forms part of the address ( ...
s in use in Washington. By the late 19th century, flour milling and other industries in Georgetown were declining, in part due to the fact that the canals and other waterways continually silted up. Nathaniel Michler and S.T. Abert led efforts to dredge the channels and remove rocks around the Georgetown harbor, though these were temporary solutions and
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
showed little interest in the issue. An 1890 flood and expansion of the railroads brought destitution to the C&O Canal, and Georgetown's waterfront became more industrialized, with narrow alleys, warehouses, and apartment dwellings which lacked plumbing or electricity. Shipping trade vanished between the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...
and World War I. As a result, many older homes were preserved relatively unchanged. Georgetown in the 1850s had a large
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensla ...
population, including both slaves and free blacks. Slave labor was widely used in construction of new buildings in Washington, in addition, to provide labor on tobacco plantations in Maryland and Virginia. Slave trading in Georgetown began in 1760 when John Beattie established his business on O Street and conducted business at other locations around Wisconsin Avenue. Other slave markets ("pens") were located in Georgetown, including one at McCandless' Tavern near M Street and Wisconsin Avenue. Slave trading continued until 1850, when it was banned in the District as one element of the
Compromise of 1850 The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of Mexican Cession, territories acquired in t ...
. Congress abolished ownership of slaves in the entire District on April 16, 1862, annually observed today as
Emancipation Day Emancipation Day is observed in many former European colonies in the Caribbean and areas of the United States on various dates to commemorate the emancipation of slaves of African descent. On August 1, 1985, Trinidad and Tobago became the fir ...
. Many African Americans moved to Georgetown following the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...
, establishing a thriving community. In the late 18th century and 19th century, African Americans comprised a substantial portion of Georgetown's population, with a large number centered around Herring Hill in the far eastern section near Rock Creek Park. The 1800 census reported the population in Georgetown at 5,120, which included 1,449 slaves and 227 free blacks. A testament to the African-American history that remains today is the Mount Zion United Methodist Church, which is the oldest African-American congregation in Washington. Prior to establishing the church, free blacks and slaves went to the Dumbarton Methodist Church where they were restricted to a hot, overcrowded balcony. The church was originally located in a small brick meetinghouse on 27th Street, but it was destroyed by fire in the 1880s. The church was rebuilt on the present site. Mount Zion Cemetery offered free burials for Washington's earlier African-American population. "From a pre-Civil War population of 6,798 whites, 1,358 free Negroes, and 577 slaves, Georgetown's population had grown to 17,300 but half these residents were poverty-stricken Negroes." Other
black church The black church (sometimes termed Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian congregations and denominations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as their ...
es in Georgetown included Alexander Memorial Baptist Church, First Baptist Church, Jerusalem Baptist Church, and Epiphany Catholic Church.


20th century

In 1915, the Buffalo Bridge (on Q Street) opened and connected this part of Georgetown with the rest of the city east of
Rock Creek Park Rock Creek Park is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. The park was created by an Act of Congress in 1890 and today is administered by the National Park Service. In addition to the park proper, the Rock Cr ...
. Soon thereafter, new construction of large apartment buildings began on the edge of Georgetown. In the early 1920s, John Ihlder led efforts to take advantage of new
zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a s ...
laws to get restrictions enacted on construction in Georgetown. A 1933 study by Horace Peaslee and Allied Architects laid out ideas for how Georgetown could be preserved. The C & O Canal, then owned by the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
, formally ceased operations in March 1924. After severe flooding in 1936,
B & O Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
sold the canal to the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational proper ...
in October 1938. The waterfront area retained its industrial character in the first half of the 20th century. Georgetown was home to a lumber yard, a cement works, the Washington Flour mill, and a meat rendering plant, with incinerator smokestacks and a power generating plant for the old
Capital Traction The Capital Traction Company was the smaller of the two major street railway companies in Washington, D.C., in the early 20th century. It was formed in 1895 through a merger of the Rock Creek Railway and the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Co ...
streetcar system, located at the foot of Wisconsin Avenue, which closed in 1935, and was demolished in October 1968. In 1949, the city constructed the Whitehurst Freeway, an elevated
highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...
above K Street, to allow motorists entering the District over the Key Bridge to bypass Georgetown entirely on their way downtown. In 1950, Public Law 808 was passed, establishing the historic district of "Old Georgetown". The law required that the
United States Commission of Fine Arts The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States, and was established in 1910. The CFA has review (but not approval) authority over the "design and aesthetics" of all construction wit ...
be consulted on any alteration, demolition, or building construction within the historic district. In 1967, the Georgetown Historic District was listed on the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
. with


21st century

Georgetown is home to many politicians and lobbyists. Georgetown's landmark waterfront district was further revitalized in 2003 and includes hotels such as a Ritz-Carlton and a Four Seasons. Georgetown's highly traveled commercial district is home to a variety of specialty retailers and fashionable boutiques.


Geography

Georgetown is bounded by the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
on the south, Rock Creek to the east, Burleith, Glover Park, and Observatory Circle to the north, with Georgetown University on the west end of the neighborhood. Much of Georgetown is surrounded by parkland and green space that serve as buffers from development in adjacent neighborhoods, and provide recreation.
Rock Creek Park Rock Creek Park is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. The park was created by an Act of Congress in 1890 and today is administered by the National Park Service. In addition to the park proper, the Rock Cr ...
, the Oak Hill Cemetery, Montrose Park and Dumbarton Oaks are located along the north and east edge of Georgetown, east of Wisconsin Avenue. The neighborhood is situated on bluffs overlooking the Potomac River. As a result, there are some rather steep grades on streets running north–south. The famous " ''Exorcist'' steps" connecting M Street to Prospect Street were necessitated by the hilly terrain of the neighborhood. The primary commercial corridors of Georgetown are M Street and
Wisconsin Avenue Wisconsin Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs. The southern terminus begins in Georgetown just north of the Potomac River, at an intersection with K Street under the elevated Whitehurst Freeway. The ...
, whose high
fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion ...
stores draw large numbers of tourists as well as local shoppers year-round. There is also the
Washington Harbour Washington Harbour is a Class-A mixed-use development located at 3000 and 3050 K Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The southern edge of the development borders the Potomac River on the Georgetown waterfront. Designed by ...
complex on K Street, on the waterfront, featuring outdoor bars and restaurants popular for viewing boat races. Between M and K Streets runs the historic
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac Canal, wh ...
, today plied only by tour boats; adjacent trails are popular with joggers or strollers.


Education


Primary and secondary education

Throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, the concentration of wealth in Georgetown sparked the growth of many
university-preparatory school A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher educatio ...
s in and around the neighborhood. One of the first schools was the Columbian Academy on N Street, which was established in 1781 with Reverend Stephen Balch serving as the headmaster. Private schools currently located in Georgetown include
Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School is a private Roman Catholic college-preparatory school for girls located in the historic Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Georgetown. Founded in 1799 by the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (also kn ...
, while nearby is the eponymous
Georgetown Day School Georgetown Day School (GDS) is an independent coeducational PK-12 school located in Washington, D.C. The school educates 1,075 elementary, middle, and high school students in northwestern Washington, D.C. Russell Shaw is the current Head of Sc ...
.
Georgetown Preparatory School Georgetown Preparatory School (also known as Georgetown Prep) is a Jesuit college-preparatory school in North Bethesda, Maryland for boys in ninth through twelfth grade. It has a 93-acre (380,000 square meters) campus. It is the only Jesuit boa ...
, while founded in Georgetown, moved in 1915 to its present location several miles north of Georgetown in Montgomery County.
District of Columbia Public Schools The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) is the local public school system for the District of Columbia, in the United States. It is distinct from the District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (DCPCS), which governs public charter ...
operates area public schools, including Hyde-Addison Elementary School on O Street. Hyde-Addison formed from merging two adjacent schools - Hyde Elementary and Addison Elementary. The Addison section was renovated in 2008 and the Hyde section was renovated in Summer 2014. An addition connecting the two buildings is scheduled for completion in Summer 2019. Hardy Middle School and
Jackson-Reed High School , motto_translation = In days to come, it will please us to remember this , address = 3950 Chesapeake Street Northwest , region = Ward 3 , city = Washington, D.C. , zipcode ...
both serve Georgetown as zoned secondary schools.
Duke Ellington School of the Arts The Duke Ellington School of the Arts (established 1974) is a high school located at 35th Street and R Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C., and dedicated to arts education. One of the high schools of the District of Columbia Public School syst ...
, a public magnet school, is in the community.


Georgetown University

The main campus of Georgetown University is located on the western edge of the Georgetown neighborhood. Father John Carroll founded Georgetown University as a
Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...
private university Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grant (money ...
in 1789, though its roots extend back to 1634. Although the school struggled financially in its early years, Georgetown expanded into a branched university after the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
under the leadership of university president
Patrick Francis Healy Patrick Francis Healy (February 27, 1834January 10, 1910) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who was an influential president of Georgetown University, becoming known as its "second founder". The university's flagship building, Healy ...
. , the university has students and students on the main campus. The main campus is just over in area and includes 58 buildings, student residences capable of accommodating 80 percent of undergraduates, various athletic facilities, and the medical school. Most buildings employ
collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...
architecture and Georgian brick architecture. Campus green areas include fountains, a cemetery, large clusters of flowers, groves of trees, and open quadrangles. The main campus has traditionally centered on Dahlgren Quadrangle, although Red Square has replaced it as the focus of student life.
Healy Hall Healy Hall is a National Historic Landmark and the flagship building of the main campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Constructed between 1877 and 1879, the hall was designed by Paul J. Pelz and John L. Smithmeyer, both of whom als ...
, built in Flemish Romanesque style from 1877 to 1879, is the architectural gem of Georgetown's campus, and is a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
.


Public libraries

The
District of Columbia Public Library The District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) is the public library system for the District of Columbia, in the United States. The system includes 26 individual libraries including Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (the DCPL's central l ...
operates the
Georgetown Neighborhood Library The Georgetown Neighborhood Library is a branch of the District of Columbia Public Library located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Established by an Act of Congress in 1934, the library houses the collection of its predecess ...
, which originally opened at 3260 R St. NW in October 1935 on the site of the former Georgetown Reservoir. An earlier public library in Georgetown was endowed by financier
George Peabody George Peabody ( ; February 18, 1795 – November 4, 1869) was an American financier and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as the father of modern philanthropy. Born into a poor family in Massachusetts, Peabody went into business in dry g ...
in 1867 and opened in a room of the Curtis School on O Street opposite St. John's Church in 1875. In the early 1930s, a library committee was formed to encourage the establishment of a new public library branch in Georgetown. The building was severely damaged by a fire on April 30, 2007, and underwent a $17.9 million renovation and expansion. The building was then re-opened on October 18, 2010, with a
LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, constructio ...
-Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. A newly constructed, climate-controlled third floor now houses the collections of the original Peabody Library and is a center for research on Georgetown history.


Transportation

Georgetown's transportation importance was defined by its location just below the
fall line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is typically prominent where rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the coas ...
of the
Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...
. The Aqueduct Bridge (and later, the Francis Scott Key Bridge) connected Georgetown with
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
. Before the Aqueduct Bridge was built, a ferry service owned by John Mason connected Georgetown to Virginia. In 1788, a bridge was constructed over Rock Creek to connect Bridge Street ( M Street) with the Federal City. Georgetown was located at the juncture of the Alexandria Canal and the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac Canal, wh ...
. The C&O Canal, begun in Georgetown in 1829, reached
Cumberland, Maryland Cumberland is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland. It is the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 19,076. Located on the Potomac River, ...
in 1851, and operated until 1924.
Wisconsin Avenue Wisconsin Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs. The southern terminus begins in Georgetown just north of the Potomac River, at an intersection with K Street under the elevated Whitehurst Freeway. The ...
is on the alignment of the tobacco
hogshead A hogshead (abbreviated "hhd", plural "hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commodity). More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either imperial or US customary measures, primarily applied to alcoh ...
rolling road from rural
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean ...
, and the Federal Customs House was located on 31st Street (now utilized as the post office). The city's oldest bridge, the sandstone bridge which carries Wisconsin Avenue over the C&O Canal, and which dates to 1831, was reopened to traffic on May 16, 2007, after a $3.5 million restoration. It is the only remaining bridge of five constructed in Georgetown by the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Company. Several streetcar lines and interurban railways interchanged passengers in Georgetown at and near the Georgetown Car Barn, which the Capital Traction Company operated near the end of the Aqueduct Bridge and later, the Key Bridge (see Streetcars in Washington, D.C.). A station serving the
Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad The Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad (GF&OD) was an interurban trolley line that ran in Northern Virginia during the early 20th century. History Chartered in 1900 by a group of local landowners and acquired in 1902 by John Roll McLean ( ...
and its successor, the Washington and Old Dominion Railway, was located in front of a stone wall on Canal Road adjacent to the Exorcist steps immediately west of the Car Barn from 1912 to 1923. Five suburban Virginia lines, connecting in Rosslyn, provided links from the D.C. streetcar network to
Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...
,
Fort Myer Fort Myer is the previous name used for a U.S. Army post next to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Founded during the American Civil War as Fort Cass and Fort Whippl ...
, Nauck,
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
,
Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...
, Clarendon, Ballston, Falls Church,
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
, Fairfax, Leesburg, Bluemont and Great Falls (see
Northern Virginia trolleys The earliest electric railway, or streetcar line, in Northern Virginia opened in 1892. At their peak, when merged into a single interurban system (the Washington-Virginia Railway), the successors of this and several other lines ran between d ...
). Streetcar operations in Washington, D.C. ended on January 28, 1962. In 1910, the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...
completed an 11-mile branch line from
Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ce ...
, to Water Street in Georgetown in an abortive attempt to construct a southern connection to
Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. Th ...
. The line served as an industrial line, shipping coal to a
General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gove ...
power plant on K Street (now razed) until 1985. The abandoned right-of-way has since been converted into the
Capital Crescent Trail The Capital Crescent Trail (CCT) is a , shared-use rail trail that runs from Georgetown in Washington, D.C., to Bethesda, Maryland. An extension of the trail from Bethesda to Silver Spring along a route formerly known as the Georgetown Branch ...
, a rails-to-trails route, and the power plant replaced by a condo. There is no
Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban ...
station in Georgetown. Some residents opposed building one but no serious plans for a station existed in the first place, primarily due to the engineering issues presented by the extremely steep grade from the Potomac River (under which the subway tunnel would run) to the center of Georgetown, very close to the river. The planners expected the Metro to serve rush-hour commuters, and the neighborhood has few apartments, office buildings, or automobile parking areas. Since the Metro's opening, there have been occasional discussions about adding another subway line and tunnel under the Potomac to service the area. Three stations are located roughly one mile (1.6 km) from the center of Georgetown: Rosslyn (across the Key Bridge in Arlington), Foggy Bottom-GWU, and
Dupont Circle Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW ...
. Georgetown is served by the 30-series, D-Series, and G2 Metrobuses, as well as the
DC Circulator The DC Circulator is a bus system in Washington, D.C. The District of Columbia Department of Transportation operates the service in a public–private partnership with RATP Dev. The DC Circulator buses are similar to shuttle buses since they ...
. Another potential option for transportation in Georgetown is scootering, with scooters provided by companies like
Bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
and Lime.


Historic district and historic landmarks

The entire Georgetown neighborhood is a designated
National Historic Landmark District National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...
, the Georgetown Historic District. It received this designation in 1967 for its large concentration of well-preserved colonial and Federal period architecture. Georgetown is also home to a variety of other historic landmarks, including: * Canal Square Building, 1054 31st Street, NW, former home of the Tabulating Machine Company, a direct precursor of IBM * The City Tavern Club, built in 1796, is the oldest commercial structure in Washington, D.C. * The
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac Canal, wh ...
, begun in 1829. *
Dumbarton Oaks Dumbarton Oaks, formally the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, is a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was the residence and garden of wealthy U.S. diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife, ...
, 3101 R Street, NW, former home of
John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist from South Carolina who held many important positions including being the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. H ...
, U.S. vice president, where the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
charter was outlined in 1944. * Evermay, built in 1801 and restored by F. Lammot Belin * The Forrest-Marbury House, 3350 M Street, NW, where
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of t ...
met with local landowners to acquire the
District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, N ...
. Currently the Embassy of Ukraine. * Georgetown Lutheran Church was the first church in Georgetown, dates back to 1769. The current church structure, the fourth on the site, was built in 1914. * Georgetown Presbyterian Church was established in 1780 by Reverend Stephen Bloomer Balch. Formerly located on Bridge Street (M Street), the current church building was constructed in 1881 on P Street. *
Healy Hall Healy Hall is a National Historic Landmark and the flagship building of the main campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Constructed between 1877 and 1879, the hall was designed by Paul J. Pelz and John L. Smithmeyer, both of whom als ...
on Georgetown's campus, built in Flemish Romanesque style from 1877 to 1879 was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. * Mount Zion United Methodist Church and Mount Zion Cemetery * The Oak Hill Cemetery, a gift of
William Wilson Corcoran William Wilson Corcoran (December 27, 1798 – February 24, 1888) was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector. He founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Early life Corcoran was born on December 27, 1798, in Georgetown in the Dis ...
whose
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type ...
and gates were designed by James Renwick Jr., was, at one time, the resting place of
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
's son Willie and other figures. * The Old Stone House, built in 1765, located on M Street is the oldest house in Washington, D.C. *
Tudor Place Tudor Place is a Federal-style mansion in Washington, D.C. that was originally the home of Thomas Peter and his wife, Martha Parke Custis Peter, a granddaughter of Martha Washington. The property, comprising one city block on the crest of Geo ...
and Dumbarton Court * The
Volta Laboratory and Bureau The Volta Laboratory (also known as the Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory, the Bell Carriage House and the Bell Laboratory) and the Volta Bureau were created in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. by Alexander Graham Bell.(19/20th-century scientist and ...
, created by
Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...
as his first formal research laboratory, the profits from which were used to create a research and educational institution devoted to serving the deaf, which operates today as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, also known as the 'AG Bell'.National Park Service
Washington, D.C. National Register of Historic Places: Volta Laboratory & Bureau
National Park Service, U.S. Department Of The Interior, Washington. Retrieved from NPS.gov website December 2009.
The film ''
The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 The Exorcist (novel), novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, ...
'' (1973) was partly filmed in Georgetown when Father Damien fell down the stairs (located near Georgetown University).


Notable residents

Famous former residents include: * Georgetown was home to
Francis Scott Key Francis Scott Key (August 1, 1779January 11, 1843) was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet from Frederick, Maryland, who wrote the lyrics for the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner". Key observed the British bombardment ...
who arrived as a young lawyer in 1808 and resided on M Street. Dr. William Beanes, a relative of Key, captured the rear guard of the British Army while it was burning Washington during the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
. When the mass of the army retreated, they retrieved their imprisoned guard and took Dr. Beanes as a captive to their fleet near
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
. Key went to the fleet to request the release of Beanes, was held until the bombardment of Fort McHenry was completed, and gained the inspiration for "
The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the ...
". *
Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...
's earliest switching office for the
Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hund ...
was located on a site just below the C&O Canal, and it remains in use as a phone facility to this day. Bell originally moved to Georgetown due to the numerous legal hearings related to telephone patents, but then later created the
Volta Laboratory The Volta Laboratory (also known as the Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory, the Bell Carriage House and the Bell Laboratory) and the Volta Bureau were created in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. by Alexander Graham Bell.(19/20th-century scientist and ...
and stayed on due to the many other scientific and technical organizations established in the region. * John F. Kennedy lived in Georgetown in the 1950s as both a Representative and a Senator. Parties hosted by his wife, Jackie, and many other Georgetown hostesses drew political elites away from downtown clubs and hotels or the upper 16th Street corridor. Kennedy went to his presidential inauguration from his townhouse at 3307 N Street in January 1961. *
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had ma ...
-winning author
Herman Wouk Herman Wouk ( ; May 27, 1915 – May 17, 2019) was an American author best known for historical fiction such as '' The Caine Mutiny'' (1951) for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. His other major works include '' The Winds of War'' and ...
resided in Georgetown and attended the Georgetown
synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wors ...
, Kesher Israel Congregation, between 1964 and 1983 when he was researching and writing his two novels of World War II, ''
The Winds of War ''The Winds of War'' is Herman Wouk's second book about World War II (the first being '' The Caine Mutiny''). Published in 1971, ''The Winds of War'' was followed up seven years later by '' War and Remembrance''; originally conceived as one volu ...
'' and ''
War and Remembrance ''War and Remembrance'' is a novel by Herman Wouk, published in October 1978 as the sequel to Wouk's '' The Winds of War'' (1971). ''The Winds of War'' covers the period 1939 to 1941, and ''War and Remembrance'' continues the story of the extende ...
''. * Hollywood actress
Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...
lived in Georgetown during her marriage to Senator John Warner in the 1970s and early 1980s. Taylor's first major stage performance, in
Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted af ...
's ''
The Little Foxes ''The Little Foxes'' is a 1939 play by Lillian Hellman, considered a classic of 20th century drama. Its title comes from Chapter 2, Verse 15 of the Song of Solomon in the King James version of the Bible, which reads, "Take us the foxes, the litt ...
'', took place nearby at the
Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...
during that time. *
Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...
's first house is located on Olive Street. Child and her husband Paul purchased the house in 1948, although they left for France soon after. In 1956, they returned to Georgetown, living in the Olive Street house until moving to
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
in 1959. * Pedro Casanave, the fifth mayor of Georgetown (who directed the construction and buried the
Cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...
in what later became in the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 180 ...
on October 12, 1792), lived near of modern Delaware Avenue, in Georgetown. *
Olivia Wilde Olivia Jane Cockburn ( ; born March 10, 1984), known professionally as Olivia Wilde, is an American actress and filmmaker. She played Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series ''House'' (2007–2012), and has appeared in th ...
grew up in Georgetown and attended
Georgetown Day School Georgetown Day School (GDS) is an independent coeducational PK-12 school located in Washington, D.C. The school educates 1,075 elementary, middle, and high school students in northwestern Washington, D.C. Russell Shaw is the current Head of Sc ...
. * Former Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...
Current residents include: * Former Secretary of State
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he p ...
* ''Washington Post'' Watergate reporter and current assistant managing editor
Bob Woodward Robert Upshur Woodward (born March 26, 1943) is an American investigative journalist. He started working for ''The Washington Post'' as a reporter in 1971 and now holds the title of associate editor. While a young reporter for ''The Washingt ...
* Montana Senator
Max Baucus Maxwell Sieben Baucus ( Enke; born December 11, 1941) is an American politician who served as a United States senator from Montana from 1978 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a U.S. senator for over 35 years, making him the long ...
* Former director of the FBI
Robert Mueller Robert Swan Mueller III (; born August 7, 1944) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the sixth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013. A graduate of Princeton University and New York ...


In film

Several movies have been filmed in Georgetown, including: * ''
Topaz Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al Si O( F, OH). It is used as a gemstone in jewelry and other adornments. Common topaz in its natural state is colorless, though trace element impurities can ma ...
'' (1969, private house) * ''
The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 The Exorcist (novel), novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, ...
'' (1973) was set in the neighborhood and partially filmed there. In the movie's climactic scene, the protagonist is hurled down the 75-step staircase at the end of 36th Street NW, which connects Prospect Street with M Street below. The staircase has come to be known as the " ''Exorcist'' steps". A false front was built onto the house at the top of the steps so that the bedroom windows would immediately overlook the steps. The real structure is considerably set-back. * ''
St. Elmo's Fire St. Elmo's fire — also called Witchfire or Witch's Fire — is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a corona discharge from a rod-like object such as a mast, spire, chimney, or animal hornHeidorn, K., Weather Elemen ...
'' (1985) was set in Georgetown, though the campus fraternity row portions were filmed at the
University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the Flagship un ...
campus in College Park. * '' No Way Out'' (1987) featured a Georgetown Metro stop as a plot device, even though no such station exists; the subway station shots were filmed in
Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
. Chase scenes for the movie were shot on the Whitehurst Freeway. * ''
The Man with One Red Shoe ''The Man with One Red Shoe'' is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Stan Dragoti and starring Tom Hanks and Dabney Coleman. It is a remake of the 1972 French film '' The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe'' starring Pierre Richard and Mireil ...
'' (1985, an early
Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...
film) * '' Chances Are'' (1989) * ''
The Exorcist III ''The Exorcist III'' is a 1990 American psychological horror film written and directed by William Peter Blatty. It is the third installment in the ''Exorcist'' series, an adaptation of Blatty's ''Exorcist'' novel ''Legion'' (1983), and the fin ...
'' (1990) * ''
Timecop ''Timecop'' is a 1994 American science fiction action film directed by Peter Hyams and co-written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden. Richardson also served as executive producer. The film is based on '' Timecop'', a story created by Richa ...
'' (1994) * ''
True Lies ''True Lies'' is a 1994 American spy action comedy film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Art Malik, Tia Carrere, Bill Paxton, Eliza Dushku, Grant Heslov and Charlton Heston ...
'' (1994) * '' Dave'' (1993) * '' The Jackal'' (1997, private homes) * ''
Enemy of the State An enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state such as treason, among other things. Describing individuals in this way is sometimes a manifestation of political repression. For example, a government may purport to ...
'' (1998) * '' Dick'' (1999, C&O Canal) * ''
Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has oper ...
'' (1999) * ''Spy Games'' (2001) * '' Minority Report'' (2002) * '' The Recruit'' (2003) * '' The Girl Next Door'' (2004) * ''
Wedding Crashers ''Wedding Crashers'' is a 2005 American comedy film directed by David Dobkin, written by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher, starring Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Christopher Walken with Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper and Jane Seymou ...
'' (2005) * ''
Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, su ...
'' (2007) * '' Georgetown'' (2019) * '' Wonder Woman 1984'' (2020) * Although ''
Burn After Reading ''Burn After Reading'' is a 2008 black comedy spy film written, produced, edited and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It follows a recently jobless CIA analyst, Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) whose misplaced memoirs are found by a pair of dimwitte ...
'' (2008) featured Georgetown prominently, filming was done in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, beh ...
. * The television series ''
The West Wing ''The West Wing'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the ...
'' occasionally filmed scenes in and around Georgetown.


References

Citations Bibliography * * * * Further reading
Historical Overview of Georgetown
from the Georgetown Partnership. * Griffith, Gary.

a
WestEndGuide.us
* King, Leroy O. ''100 Years of Capital Traction - The Story of Streetcars in the Nations Capital'', Taylor Publishing Company, Dallas, Texas, Third printing, 1989, .

from the '' Washington Post'', by Andrew Stephen, July 16, 2006
Georgetown's early history


National Park Service.


External links


Citizens Association of Georgetown
community association
GeorgetownDC.com
by the Georgetown Business Improvement District
''The Georgetown Current''
community newspaper
''The Georgetowner''
community magazine * *
Hyde-Addison Elementary School
{{Portal bar, United States Federal architecture in Washington, D.C. Former municipalities in the United States Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C. Neighborhoods in Northwest (Washington, D.C.) Populated places on the Potomac River Shopping districts and streets in the United States 1751 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies