West End Cinema to Re-open as Landmark Theatre July 17
• July 16, 2015

West End Cinema, the independent movie theater at 23rd and M Streets NW that closed March 31 after four years of operation, will re-open July 17 as part of Landmark Theatres, the cinema chain announced this week.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Landmark Theatres is known for showing documentaries, independent and foreign films and operates 50 theaters — 229 screens in 21 markets — across the U.S. Its first spot in D.C. was E Street Cinema at 555 11th St. NW in Penn Quarter, and it also operates Bethesda Row Cinema. In 2016, Landmark’s footprint in D.C. will expand with new screens in the old Atlantic Plumbing building at 8th and V streets NW later this year and at the Capitol Point project at New York Avenue and N Street NE, one block from the NoMa/Gallaudet U Metro station.

Previously known as the Inner Circle triplex before Josh Levin revived the place as West End Cinema, the new theater in the West End neighborhood will have two screens, and its lobby service will include alcoholic beverages.

Landmark President Ted Mundorff said that the new M Street venue will “bring even more films and events to the Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom and Georgetown neighborhoods.”

The Genius of Place
• July 13, 2015

When architect Robert Bell announced that he was purchasing the old Georgetown Theater property last October, one got the sense that the man and the place were made for this moment.

Bell, who has worked on projects from Georgetown to Turkey, has his office at 3218 O St., NW, close to the former theater at 1351 Wisconsin Ave., NW, at the intersection of O and Wisconsin.

He has already redeveloped and owns buildings next to his office property. Before the theater property redevelopment is completed, Bell wants to relight its iconic neon “Georgetown” sign by July 4, pending approvals.“I never thought I would see this day come,” Bell told the Georgetowner in October. “It’s a miracle.” He worked with the previous owner, the Heon family, which bought the theater in 1949 and put it up for sale in 2010 for about $4.5 million.

Angie Heon Nys said of Bell: “I had seen the other projects he had done on O Street and was very impressed with his vision and talent. Since I have known him, he has taken a special interest in our property and has put quite a lot of time and energy into his plans. I think the direction he is going in will bring new-found life to that part of Wisconsin Avenue and when he is finished Georgetown will be proud to have it as its landmark.”

Of Nys, Bell replied: “Without her, the deal would not have happened. ”

Bell has said the rejuvenated property will include retail and office space and residences. With the ability to enhance or add windows, the space can have lots of light. The architect also said the property will have much more usable space and will use only one-third of the energy previously used. That’s for a lot described as “6,569 square feet with parking and a carriage house in the rear.” He also envisions a wider sidewalk for that block.

“The basic commitment is contextual architecture wherever I practice it, whether it is in Turkey or Georgetown,” said Bell, who has had to redesign the back of the property after the Old Georgetown Board review called for less space for an intended residence.

Some neighbors on Dumbarton Street and O Street were upset about a planned back addition and the height of an outside wall.

At a November advisory neighborhood commission meeting, one neighbor said Bell was lying about the wall’s height. Christian Mulder, who lives adjacent to the property on Dumbarton Street, said of the latest design changes: “We are happy that the carriage house will be restored, but we are unhappy that an illegal garage that has been a hazard for years is going to be built up two stories and an inner courtyard turned into some half housing project with a loggia. If Bell can build like this, all of Georgetown should be able to build like this. But that would be at the detriment of all of us residents, as the neighborhood would lose character and livability. “In essence,” Mulder continued, “the project remains one of commercial sprawl – no major reductions in the proposal of the main building have been made. The theater building will be massively built up into a four-story colossus. It will have apartments overlooking over people’s gardens. It has a roof and side that is not at all in line with adjacent buildings.”

Bell will face new comments on his redesigns at the Feb. 3 ANC meeting and the Feb. 6 OGB meeting. He seems unfazed, moving on after each design tweak – indeed, his passion for the project and his art is infectious. After all, his firm’s motto is from a quote by the poet Alexander Pope: “Consult the genius of place.” Explained Bell: “I don’t need to do architecture for a living. I am only doing projects which are interesting because they address the biggest issues of today and which is to make a sustainable environment, while preserving and enriching the uniqueness of each place in the world. That uniqueness is both the particular place and its history.”

“That is why the two projects which I am presently pursuing are passive house designs where I am pushing the envelope of technology to consuming zero energy; or community scale projects, such as transforming streets and alleys to the vision of a densification which is just another part of the same principle of making the planet sustainable by stopping urban sprawl to preserve nature and farms,” he said.

As far as his latest project goes, Bell said: “The Georgetown Theater [property] embodies all of these aspects of design – saving the historic and unique character of Georgetown, designing it with passive house characteristics to minimize energy consumption as a model of what can be done in a historic district, densifying the multi-use quality of the building by substantially increasing the use of the existing building, the commitment to making alleys, gardens and people spaces, as in Europe, and finally transforming the sidewalk into a place which is not dominated by automobiles but a commitment to a place which works for people and shopping.”

It is a unique project for the 72-year-old Bell who grew up in suburban Denver, Colo., and studied architecture at Yale University. He admires the architect Robert Venturi who pushed back at the tenets of modern architecture. To architect Mies van der Rohe’s dictum, “Less is more,” Venturi responded: “Less is a bore.”

“When I want to architecture school all there was modern architecture,” Bell said. “Venturi freed students to see traditional architecture just as interesting as modern architecture. I love good architecture. The problem with international architecture is that it is all homogenized. An Apple store looks the same everywhere.”

Bell came to the Washington area to teach architecture at the University of Maryland, applied his craft on Capitol Hill — where he developed condos from an old Peoples Drug building at Lincoln Park — and then moved his business to Georgetown. He and his wife Ann Emmet Bell, who live in Wesley Heights, have five children – Alexa, Rebecca, Bettina, Emmet and Adam — who are older now and have left the nest.

One project the whole family enjoyed was the Solarz house in Kalkan, Turkey. They all got to go with dad. On the Aegean Sea, due east of Rhodes, Greece, the white, sun-drenched “house on the hill” is a far cry from the McLean home, where Bell, years ago, designed a library for the late Rep. Stephen Solarz.

On Volta Place, Bell redesigned the old Georgetown Police Station. It was nice to have Janet Auchincloss, the half-sister of Jaqueline Kennedy, as a buyer, he said. His client — and his children – delighted in the elevator in the middle of a kitchen, which comes out of the ceiling in one of the houses.

At Glover Archbold Park and Hillandale, Bell designed the Palmer residence, next to D.C.’s oldest log cabin. “It looked like something out of Tuscany with donkeys up on the hill,” Bell said of the site that can be seen from Reservoir Road.

Bell and fellow architect Dale Overmyer designed the Johns house on 29th Street. Deb Johns – who said resident concerns about this latest project will be worked out — called Bell “a visionary.” Other projects include a waterfront house in Sherwood Forest near Annapolis and Stonewall Farm.

Nowadays, during an architectural review, Bell finds that “people who were my students are now my judges.” He is complimentary of the OGB, saying it has “great architects.”

A design concept Bell learned at Yale has served him well these days: there is order with some resistance — “something caused a pearl, created by a problem.” That’s what is meant by “genius of the place.” That’s how Bell sees some of those who objected to his original designs for the old theater building. He called his neighbors his “zen masters.”

When asked about other local architects, Bell said he was not necessarily a big fan of architects Hugh Jacobsen and Arthur Cotton Moore. And he did not like Frank Gehry’s Eisenhower memorial or the architecture of the former Shops at Georgetown Park. “There is a balancing act between all of history or just valuable history,” Bell said. “It is a struggle over what is appropriate to keep – like taking off the theater’s fake stone.”

“We want to preserve the historical quality,” he said. “It’s making the fabric richer and denser – and the more people the better. Georgetown should be as dense as possible. It’s good for the environment.”

“All this said, the only way I personally can accomplish these goals is to make the Georgetown Theater profitable as a development,” Bell said. “A profitable endeavor not only makes it possible for me to do it as an individual, it can be a model for other ventures to preserve and revitalize cities.”

“I believe cities should always focus on enriching the pedestrian quality – a place where it is a joy to stroll. That is what I want for Wisconsin Avenue and Georgetown.” [gallery ids="101605,147094,147091" nav="thumbs"]

‘Got Him’: Police Arrest Prime Suspect in Woodley Park Murders, Along with 5 Others
• June 22, 2015

Late Thursday night, U.S. marshals and officers from the Metropolitan Police Department arrested Daron Dylon Wint, 34, the prime suspect in the May 14 murders of Savvas Savopoulus, his wife, Amy Savopoulos, their son Philip, and a housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, at the Savopoulus home in Woodley Park.

A massive manhunt ended on the 1100 block of Rhode Island Avenue NE. “A police helicopter joined the pursuit from above, and officers eventually got between the two vehicles in northeast Washington. Wint surrendered without a fight and showed little emotion as he, three other men and two women were taken into custody,” according to the Associated Press. One of those arrested was Wint’s brother. The scene on Rhode Island Avenue involved about 25 vehicles.

“Just got him,” announced MPD Chief Cathy Lanier around 11:30 p.m., May 21, of the person accused of multiple slayings, which Mayor Muriel Bowser, called “an act of evil.”

After tracking Wint to New York and back to D.C., the fugitive task force detected him near a Howard Johnson hotel in College Park, Md., and followed a sedan and box truck into the District. Police also found at least $10,000 in one of the vehicles and did not rule out other possible suspects.

According to the New York Post, Wint took a taxicab from Brooklyn to D.C. to escape police: “He’d been staying in his gal pal’s Canarsie apartment since Sunday — but wasn’t concerned about getting caught until he was named as a suspect Wednesday night, a law enforcement source said. Wint was ‘shocked’ by the warrant for his arrest, the source added. He called his parents in Maryland, then hopped in a livery cab, forking over hundreds of dollars to get back to D.C., the source said.”

Wint is set to be arraigned Friday afternoon on a charge of first-degree murder while armed.

After the dramatic arrest of the suspect, accused of a heinous crime which attracted local, national and international attention, the Savopoulos family offered a statement: “While it does not abate our pain, we hope that it begins to restore a sense of calm and security to our neighborhood and to our city. We are blessed to live in a community comprised of close circles of friends who have supported us and grieve with us. Our family, and Vera’s family, have suffered unimaginable loss, and we ask for the time and space to grieve privately.”

Because of DNA left on a crust of pizza at the crime scene and a criminal record, Wint matched the forensic evidence, and the pursuit began.

“He is wanted pursuant to a D.C. Superior Court arrest warrant charging him with Murder One while Armed,” MPD announced May 20. “He is described as a black male, approximately 5’7” in height, weighing approximately 155 pounds.”

“For residents of the District who are rightfully scared and want answers as to why and how this family may have been involved, we want to give you as many answers as we can,” said Lanier at a midday press conference May 21.”What we can tell you right now is that we do believe there is a connection between the suspect in this case through the business. So right now it does not appear that this was a random crime.”

Wint is reported to have worked as a welder for American Iron Works in Hyattsville, Md., where Savvas Savopoulus was the CEO. Wint went through Marine Corps boot camp in 2000 but left after five weeks. He is also an ex-convict.

On May 21, CNN reported: “On Thursday, U.S. Marshals and NYPD detectives questioned a woman believed to be Wint’s girlfriend, according to two law enforcement sources involved in the investigation. The sources said the girlfriend, who lives in Brooklyn, told authorities that she spoke to Wint and that he was planning to turn himself in.”

The May 14 murder of Savvas Savopoulus, 46, and his wife, Amy Savopoulos, 47, as well as their 10-year-old son, Philip, who attended St. Alban’s School, and a housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57, has shocked friends of the family, which lived blocks away from Washington National Cathedral and the home of Vice President Joe Biden. After the attacks, the Savopoulus house — valued at $4.5 million — in the 3200 block of Woodland Drive NW was set on fire. The suspect or suspects fled the scene with $40,000 in cash, obtained from Savopoulus.

Savvas Savopoulos and his wife Amy were known around town and were involved with school and other social benefits. The couple’s two teenage daughters were at boarding school at the time of the murder and are safe.

A June 1 funeral service is planned for Savvas, Amy and Philip Savopoulos at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Massachusetts Avenue. The remains of Veralicia Figueroa will be sent to her native El Salvador after a funeral here.

Residents to Leave Water Street Condos for Repairs
•

Residents of a high-end, 72-unit building on the Georgetown waterfront will be moving out temporarily for repairs to a structure just over ten years old.

With a lawsuit settled between owners of units in the condominium building at 3303 Water St. NW and its builder and seller EastBanc and its CEO Anthony Lanier, construction work is set to begin this month.

The Washington Business Journal reported May 29: “Details of the mass exodus from 3303 Water St. NW are scarce. We’re told that residents will be leaving as soon as the second week in June and were offered the opportunity to relocate to a D.C. Ritz-Carlton at a cost of $12,000 for a month.”

The Journal continued: “In 2011, the 3303 Water Street Condominium Association sued EastBanc, its president Anthony Lanier, and EastBanc’s contractors, alleging the design, construction and installation of drywall, bathtubs, and ventilation shafts ‘fail to meet the requirements of the applicable building code and industry standard, and creates substantial risk to the health and safety of unit owners and residents, as well as risk of and actual damage to property.’ ”

“It is one of the most beautiful condos in Washington, D.C.,” Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP Partner S. Scott Morrison, attorney for the condo association, told the Journal. “The interior finishes are first rate. The views out over either Georgetown or the river are spectacular. The problem in this building stems from poor management of the construction process by Lanier and a refusal to take appropriate steps to remedy those deficiencies. The association was left with absolutely no choice but to sue Lanier and the defendants.”

Morrison told the newspaper the issues were discovered after a sprinkler head burst, damaging six units. Contractors discovered “serious deficiencies” during the ensuing repairs, which required drywall removal. The lawsuit alleged: Gypsum wall board is discontinuous and/or omitted in concealed areas. Steel wall studs were severed and/or cut out for piping “in a manner that is not in compliance with applicable fire and building codes.” Bathtubs were improperly supported and installed, and a retention flange was omitted, allowing “water to enter the wall assembly.”

The condominiums were built by EastBanc in 2004. The lawsuit, which includes money for the construction job and moving costs, was settled in November 2014.

One source familiar with the address said that residents would be moving in stages, not all at once.

One of 3303 Water Street’s units is on the market for $9 million.

A Daughter’s Love Story: the Legacy of Carol Stuart Watson
•

“The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Carol Stuart Watson, the Nation’s Capital Illustrator” was the name of Marjorie Young’s lecture about her mother, Carol Stuart Watson, at the Georgetown Public Library June 13.

For the Georgetowner — which recently marked its 60th anniversary — Young was telling a story close to its heart and its beginning in 1954, when her mother Carol Stuart, an artist, editor and writer, helped founding publisher Ami Stewart create the look of the iconic newspaper for the oldest neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

“To say my mother had a lifelong love affair with Georgetown and its colonial neighbors would be an understatement,” Young said. She arrived at Georgetown Hospital on August 14, 1931, the eldest of seven children born to Dr. Leander Scales Stuart and Henrietta Christine Kreh Stuart.

By 1954, Stuart was at the brand-new Georgetowner Newspaper. “Those days at the Georgetowner, my mother told me, were the happiest time in her life,” Young said.

In 1960, Carol and David Watson founded Carriage Trade Publications, which was located under the Whitehurst Expressway next to the old coal power plant.

“They befriended and did business with the owners of many of the finest shops and restaurants in Georgetown and across the region,” Young recalled. “Mom used her considerable talents to teach their many customers how to build comprehensive brand image campaigns. She had a terrific influence on the visual brand language of the entire area. She designed the shapes, colors, materials, finishes, typography and composition which directly and subliminally communicated the personality of the District.”

For Young, her June trip was an emotional return to Washington after so many years. She could see and feel her mother’s writing in Georgetown, she said.

The Georgetowner still possesses copies of the Federalist-antique-style map of Georgetown that is seen in homes around town. It was drawn by Carol Stuart Watson, who with her husband papered the city with maps, posters, dining guides, calendars and Christmas cards. She drew the first images of the pandas for the National Zoo. She illustrated children’s books, drew murals in building lobbies and worked at Johns Hopkins’s Applied Physics Laboratory. Watson died of lung cancer in 1986.

“I think one of the most remarkable things about my mother is that she accomplished all of this by age 54,” Young said. “She accumulated a long list of achievements in her short time on this earth, and she left an indelible imprint on her beloved community, that rippled out across the District and throughout the nation. … I’ll always think of her as a loving wife and the most incredible mother, but I’ll also remember mom as a prolific artist, a superb photographer and as a person who simply appreciated beauty in everything: music, flowers, nature, family. Mom was as sensitive as any lens in a camera.” [gallery ids="102120,133783" nav="thumbs"]

A Happy 78th Birthday Party for Tony of Tony and Joe’s
•

Restaurateur Tony Cibel celebrated his 78th birthday with a full house of happy guests June 4 at his riverfront restaurant at Washington Harbour, Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place.

Party-goers were again treated to endless servings of oysters, shrimp, lamb chops, sauteed soft-shell crabs, split lobster, prime rib and drinks.

Native Washingtonian Tony Cibel founded Tony and Joe’s with Joe Rinaldi in October 1987 at the newly constructed Washington Harbour. His business projects have expanded since then. Cibel is the patriarch of the Oceanside Management Family of restaurants, which has included the Dancing Crab, Tony & Joe’s Seafood Place, Nick’s Riverside Grille, Kaufmann’s Tavern, Cabanas and the Rockfish. Tony and Joe’s survived the April 2011 flooding at the waterfront that damaged it and several other places. With a re-design, it emerged better than ever.
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Georgetown Is Looking Good: BID Touts Canal Funds, New Restaurants; Issues Annual Report
•

It was a very good year, it seems, if you attended the Georgetown Business Improvement District’s annual meeting, held June 10 at Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place at Washington Harbour on the Georgetown waterfront.

Office and retail space is renting well, consumer spending remains strong and consistent, the C&O Canal, a jewel of Georgetown, will get funding from the District government for rehabilitation — and four restaurants received major honors. To boot, the BID issued its third annual State of Georgetown report and redesigned and upgraded its website.

Now a park, the historic canal which connects the town to its working waterfront past took center stage.  “The C&O Canal is a unique feature of our region and a living piece of America’s history,” said Joe Sternlieb, CEO of the Georgetown BID. “It’s a window into the story of our industrial past, and is also a place for exercise, recreation and reflection.”
 
As previously reported in The Georgetowner and other news outlets, D.C.’s 2016 Budget includes $3 million for restoration and education efforts for the Georgetown section of the C&O Canal National Historical Park.

The BID and other community leaders founded Georgetown Heritage, an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit organization “with the mission of promoting and presenting the history of Washington D.C.’s oldest neighborhood.” Georgetown Heritage made fixing the C&O Canal its first mission and now works with the National Park Service on repairs, safety efforts and buying a new canal barge.
 
“I am pleased to report today that my efforts to get the city to support the C&O Canal initiatives in the Georgetown 2028 agenda have been embraced by the Council,” Ward 2 D.C. Councilman Jack Evans said.  “We have approved $3 million to the C&O Canal efforts of the BID and Georgetown Heritage.  These funds will be used to fix Lock 4, build a new canal boat and support comprehensive planning efforts to improve lighting, the towpath, wayfinding and interpretation.”

Evans also said, “The city is on board” with not only the canal work and money but also lighting under Key Bridge and the Whitehurst Freeway. Pulling from his standard celebratory stump speech, the longest serving councilman recalled the first year of the 21st century, when Georgetown was known for its exploding manhole covers and its “Little Dig,” torn-up streets because of work on its infrastructure as well as major building going up around town, such as the Ritz-Carlton and the large southwest dormitory complex at Georgetown University. “In Georgetown, nothing is ever easy,” Evans smiled.

Besides the $3 million from the District government, Georgetown Heritage promises to raise $3 million from the private sector.

The goals of fixing the canal and getting a new canal boat is only part of the action agenda items that are contain in the BID’s Georgetown 2028 Plan, “an ambitious agenda of 75 action items aimed to improve Georgetown’s transportation infrastructure and management, public spaces and economy” and “created by the Georgetown BID and community stakeholders and officially launched in January 2014,” the BID says.

Along with awards and discussions, the meeting brought together some interesting aspects of Georgetown business and its people.

Andrew Blair, CEO of Colonial Parking, who said “To hell with U Street,” introduced Paul Cohen, who founded J. Paul’s, Paulo’s, Old Glory and other restaurants in Georgetown. Cohen was recognized by the BID for the his lifelong achievement in town. For his part, Cohen saluted the legacy of “the Laythams, the Millers, the Laniers and the Snyders.” He gently acknowledged of Georgetown: “We’re in a unique situation that not everyone knows.” Cohen’s newest restaurant is Boss Shepherd’s at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Other awardees included Marcus Brown of the BID’s Clean Team and Georgetown Galleries, a consortium of art galleries in town.

The Park Service’s Kevin Brandt was saluted as “Community Leader of the Year.” Brandt noted that the bicentennial of the C&O Canal is 2028, the same year which ends the BID’s 15-year action plan program.

He said that his ideas for the canal jived with the BID’s and that he was “optimistic” about the canal’s future “despite federal cuts.”

The BID’s economic development director Josh Hermias noted that there is 48,000 square feet of retail space under construction or in the planning stage — considering the 3220 Prospect Street project and the old Georgetown Theater reconstruction.

Herb Heiserman of Streetsense, which helped design such spots as Bandolero and ShopHouse, talked about restaurants and retail shops and how people experience those spaces. Heiserman brought up the fact that “rents have exploded.” He lamented the intrusion of the clothing store, Francesca’s, on Bistro Francais, which owns only half of the space it used.

Restaurateur Ian Hilton sat down briefly to discuss his work and restaurants with Steinlieb. Hilton opened Chez Billy Sud in October 2014 at 1039 31st St. NW., and it quickly become a neighborhood favorite. It is
in the old Cafe LaRuche space — he said he tried to buy the property.

Of Georgetown, Hilton, who grew up in Capitol Hill and now lives in Arlington, said: “It’s almost not D.C. I’ve always thought of Georgetown as this little town that I’ve always loved. . . . I think people are rediscovering how special Georgetown is, and with more and more people biking in the city I had this vision of people biking in to be in the neighborhood and eating at our beautiful spot. We wanted to open in a pretty space, serve good food at a good price and serve the neighborhood.”

Hilton also quipped that “the celebrity chef climate” was “kind of the apocalypse.” He added his two cents to the conversation about Georgetown’s liquor license moratorium: building new restaurants “can’t be done in the current liquor license environment.”

As the crowd adjourned, Fred Moosally, director of the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, reminded business folk of the four liquor licenses now available for Georgetown with application beginning June 25. Moosally also noted that the town’s liquor license moratorium expires Feb. 3, 2016.

In its State of Georgetown report, the BID highlighted:

= Strong office sector performance for a third year in a row, with vacancy dropping to 7.1 percent—outperforming all other submarkets in the region.

= Retailer interest remains high, evidenced by a net gain of 19 new stores and services, a total collection of over 350 retailers, rising rents and property values, and a retail vacancy rate of 2.7 percent at year-end 2014.

= New LEED certifications for six office and retail spaces accounting for 671,000 square feet (12 percent of total rentable building area in Georgetown), signaling growing interest in renewing buildings.

= Turnover in the restaurant industry produced exciting, critically praised concepts like Fiola Mare, Chez Billy Sud, a revamped Grill Room helmed by Chef Frank Ruta, and Dog Tag Bakery.  Georgetown hotel occupancy rebounded, moving slightly above the five year average to 71.5 percent, and revenues increased to $72 million (up 12 percent from 2013).

Visit the BID’s revamped website to download a copy of the report, or click here.

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Lauralyn Lee Thanked by Georgetown
• June 18, 2015

Georgetown University bid farewell to Lauralyn Lee, its associate vice president for community engagement and strategic initiatives, June 4 with a reception at historic Riggs Library. Well-wishers presented her with a plaque that holds a brick from the Georgetown neighborhood and a brick from Healy Hall, connected by a rope: “for bringing together Georgetown University and the Georgetown Community — forever tied together as one!”

At Georgetown for 13 years, Lee worked on the recent campus plan that resolved many issues and created the Georgetown Community partnership, a standing group of university administrators, students, community leaders and residents. But Lee won’t be going too far away. She is continuing her work as consultant and remains in town.

Georgetown Seniors Treated to Special Long & Foster Luncheon
• June 11, 2015

The Georgetown Senior Center — which meets two times a week at St. John’s Church on O Street for lunch as well as social and educational programs — got a special treat June 3 from a group of energetic real estate agents from the Georgetown office of Long & Foster Real Estate & Christie’s International Real Estate. Agents offered up an indoor picnic of cheeses, charcuterie, tuna and chicken salad sandwiches as well as slices of crowd-pleasing strawberry short cake.

The Long & Foster project leader was Margaret Heimbold with the help of Natalee Snider. Volunteers included Susan Daves, David Snider, Olena Norman, Derry, Haws, Patricia Sonaty, Rose-Marie Harris, Thomas Knobloch, Scout Sinclair, John Arnold, Emmanuel Sturley, Judi Cochran and her daughter Edina Morse. The annual picnic luncheon at St. John’s for the seniors is part of Long & Foster’s company-wide Community Service Day.
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Georgetown Seniors Make It a Happy Thanksgiving
• June 8, 2015

Members of the Georgetown Senior Center and its volunteer staff celebrated all things Thanksgiving at St. John’s Church on O Street Nov. 26. Happy for health, for friends and for a lunch where someone asked for more plates from the kitchen, the seniors first said grace with Rector Rev. Gini Gerbasi, who gave thanks and also asked that those traveling in the rainy, sleety weather be safe and have the appropriate clothing to wear. The traditional lunch — regularly donated by 1789 Restaurant for years — consisted of turkey, string beans, stuffing and mashed potatoes, along with cranberry sauce and turkey gravy. And for dessert? Of course: pumpkin and apple pies. Guests felt doubly blessed to partake of the pate prepared by the former interim rector, Rev. Bruce McPherson. [gallery ids="101935,136065,136062" nav="thumbs"]