ANC Report November 4, 2015
• November 5, 2015

The Georgetown-Burleith-Hillandale Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2E) held its monthly meeting Nov. 2. The following is a selection of decisions by the commissioners at the meeting; other reports from this meeting are forthcoming.

DC Water Green Infrastructure Plans Previewed

The commission announced DC Water’s plans to install green infrastructure, which will involve utility cuts on Georgetown streets. Inspections of planned work locations will begin this month. The $30-million project to absorb storm water before it goes into the main sewer system is slated to run from 2017 through 2019.

Misuse of GroupMe App Decried

The commission offered its opinion of a local GroupMe app, shut down by its host, the Georgetown Business Improvement District, on Oct. 18: “A recent attempt by the Georgetown BID to use social media to deter shoplifting was used improperly and hurtfully by some retail employees in ways the BID did not intend, in a manner that is completely inconsistent with Georgetown’s welcoming and respectful spirit. We support the creative use of technology to bring the Georgetown business community together. However, the Georgetown BID and the community as a whole must ensure that whatever replaces this app is never used as a tool for profiling or discrimination. “

Starbucks Pulls Liquor License Application

Because of community concerns and its closeness to a school, Starbucks Coffee at 1810 Wisconsin Ave. NW withdrew its wine and beer license application, a corporate representative announced at the meeting.

Thumbs Down to Dean & Deluca, Kouzina; ShopHouse O.K.

Commissioners protested the liquor license application by Dean & Deluca at 3276 M St. NW. The fancy food store has a plan for live entertainment and outdoor seating (the side next to the store is used by customers now), as well as 10 new seats in the wine department in the back of the store, which sells beer and wine but cannot allow consumption on the premises.

The proposed Kouzina Authentic Greek Restaurant at 3235 Prospect St. NW, asking for 50 outdoor seats, got a quick thumbs-down. However, plans by ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen at 2805 M St. NW to sell beer and wine got the go-ahead.

Tudor Place’s Leslie Buhler Saluted

The commission presented a community commendation to Leslie Buhler:

“In recognition of her steady hand and creative leadership as the executive director of Tudor Place, ANC 2E commends Leslie Buhler. In the 15 years that Leslie has charted the course for Tudor Place her intelligence, her expertise, her diplomacy and her resilience have combined to elevate the value of one of our great historic treasures for Georgetown, for the city of Washington, and for the nation.

“She raised the level of scholarship and interpretation of the Tudor Place collection, maintaining the highest standards with significant attention to the preservation and conservation of the treasures of Tudor Place. Leslie’s leadership has brought national recognition and distinction to this beloved property. With her open, welcoming and inclusive manner, Leslie has won the loyalty and appreciation of the Tudor Place neighbors and the entire Georgetown community. For all this, we owe our gratitude and our commendation to Leslie Buhler for her outstanding service and contribution to our neighborhood and the city.”

Via Umbria Gets Settlement Agreement; Concerns Remain

A settlement agreement was approved for Via Umbria, an Italian houseware and food store at 1525 Wisconsin Ave. NW, however neighbors remain concerned about the use of a backyard patio. Per the agreement, the owner would not consider use of the patio until April 2016, if at all. Via Umbria intends to serve small meals, such as sandwiches, for consumption on its first floor (26 seats) second floor (20 seats) and has applied for a Class C liquor license. There will be private dinners and cooking demonstrations in the second floor kitchen, but — again per the agreement — the space cannot be rented out. Closing hour will be 11:30 p.m. Neighbors Sue Rutledge and Larry Houseman, whose homes are behind the business on 32nd Street, spoke in opposition to the ANC’s approval of Via Umbria’s application.

ANC Tonight: DC Water, G.U. Hospital Plans; Salute to Tudor Place’s Leslie Buhler
•

The Georgetown-Burleith-Hillandale Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC 2E) will hold its November meeting, 6:30 p.m., Nov. 2, at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, 35th Street and Volta Place, NW, Heritage Room, main building, second floor. The following is Monday’s meeting agenda, as provided by ANC 2E.

Approval of the Agenda

• Approval of November 2, 2015, ANC 2E Public Meeting Agenda

Administrative

• Approval of September 28, 2015 Meeting Minutes

• Public Safety and Police Report

• Financial Report –Approval of FY 2016 ANC 2E Budget

• Transportation Report

• Consideration of a request to the Old Georgetown Board/Commission of Fine Arts that the OGB not hold a meeting in early January

Community Commendation

• Community Commendation for Leslie Buhler

Community Comment

• Impacts of DC Water Green Infrastructure plans

New Business

• Valet parking application for Paolo’s restaurant

• Medstar Georgetown University Hospital application for a Certificate of Need for a major addition to the hospital

ABC

• Via Umbria, ABRA-100436,1525 Wisconsin Avenue NW — possible settlement agreement

• Kouzina Authentic Greek Restaurant, ABRA0099818, 3235 Prospect St (Class C license, includes 50 outdoor seats)

• Starbucks Coffee.ABRA-100546, 1810 Wisconsin Ave. NW (wine & beer license application, includes outdoor roof deck with 33 seats)

• ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, ABRA-100547, 2805 M Street NW (new Class D license)

The following ABC items have been placed on No Review by ANC 2E at this time and we do not propose to adopt a resolution on them at this time. If there are concerns about any of these projects, please contact the ANC office by Friday, October 30, 2015:

• Dean & Deluca, ABRA-093723, 3267 M Street NW, Class D restaurant license (with entertainment endorsement and 50 outdoor seats)

Old Georgetown Board

Major and Public Projects:

1. SMD 01 OG 15-342 (HPA 15-619) 3800 Reservoir Road, NW Medstar Georgetown University Hospital Information presentation
New addition to the hospital and site work

Private Projects

1. SMD 02 OG 16-011 (HPA 15-045) 3324 Dent Place, NW
Residence
Concept
New construction
Contact: K C Price – kc@kcdcstudios.com; ; John Casey – johnfkc@aol.com

2. SMD 05 OG 16-004 (HPA 16-010) 3000 K Street, NW
Commercial
Concept
Terrace enclosure at FFB
Contact: Joe Spinelli – restconsultants@mac.com

3. SMD 05 OG 16-007 (HPA 16-013) 3403 M Street, NW
Commercial
Permit
Replacement windows
Contact: Eric Dagadu – edagadu@destinybuildingproducts.com

4. SMD 05 OG 16-013 (HPA 16-021) 3121 N Street, NW
Residence
Permit
Reconstruct front porch
Contact: Robert Hetem – rhdesigngroup2@aol.com

5. SMD 05 OG 15-317 (HPA 15-567)
1055 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW
Mixed-use
Concept
Addition/alterations – Foundry
Contact: Kevin North – knorth@jbg.com; John Nahra – john@nahradesign.com; Buji Tallapragada – btallapragada@jbg.com

6. SMD 06 OG 16-026 (HPA 16-034) 1312 31st Street, NW
Residence
Concept
Brick garden wall
Contact: Christian Zapatka – Christian@christianzapatka.com

7. SMD 06 OG 15-240 (HPA 15-450) 3029 M Street, NW
Commercial Permit
Replacement windows, sign – Moleskine
Contact: Gideon Sorkin – gsorkin@eastbanc.com; Allison Evans – aevans@interplaninc.com

8. SMD 06 OG 15-348 (HPA 15-262) 3061 M Street, NW
Commercial
Permit
Storefront alterations
Contact: Douglas Foster – expeditingservices.net; Nicholas Tricarico – info@tricarico.com

9. SMD 06 OG 15-269 (HPA 15-486) 2815 Dumbarton Street, NW
Residence
Concept
Alterations, replacement roof, site work
Contact: Carmel Greer – carmel@districtdesign.com; Ashley Adams – info@districtdesign.com

10. SMD 07 OG 16-024 (HPA 16-032) 3029 Q Street, NW
Residence
Concept
Demolition and new garage
Contact: Anthony Barnes – abarnes@barnesvanze.com

11. SMD 07 OG 15-341 (HPA 16-032) 3035 Q Street, NW, #5
Residence
Permit
Rooftop addition and deck (HPA 15-618)
Contact: Andrew Baldwin – andrew@kube-arch.com

12. SMD 07 OG 16-003 (HPA 16-009) 3029 Dent Place, NW
Residence
Concept
Rear addition
Contact: Bernard Guay – bernguay@gmail.com

No Review At This Time by ANC 2E: The following additional projects, which are on the upcoming November 5, 2015, agenda of the Old Georgetown Board, have not been added to the ANC meeting agenda for OGB-related design review and we do not propose to adopt a resolution on them at this time. If there are concerns about any of these projects, please contact the ANC office by Friday, October 30, 2015.

1. SMD 02 OG 16-009 (HPA 16-015) 1703 32nd Street, NW
Institution Permit
Alterations – pool and pool house

2. SMD 02 OG 16-002 (HPA 16-008) 3215 Volta Place, NW Residence Permit
Gas light

3. SMD 02 OG 16-001 (HPA 16-001) 3223 Volta Place, NW Residence Alterations
concept

4. SMD 03 OG 15-275 (HPA 15-519) 3252 N Street, NW Residence Permit
Replacement gate

5. SMD 03 OG 15-285 (HPA 15-531) 3301 N Street, NW Residence Permit
Rear addition, alterations – Existing alterations without review

6. SMD 03 OG 16-017 (HPA 15-448) 3331 N Street, NW Residence Additions and alterations
Concept

7. SMD 03 OG 14-352 (HPA 14-077) 3240 P Street, NW Commercial Revised permit review
Three-story rear addition with basement

8. SMD 03 OG 15-230 (HPA 15-440) 3249 P Street, NW Residence Permit
Alterations to rear

9. SMD 03 OG 16-020 (HPA 15-276) 3107 Dumbarton Street, NW Residence Concept
Raise roof, rear addition, replacement windows – Existing alterations without review

10. SMD 03 OG 16-021 (HPA 16-029) 3107 Dumbarton Street, NW Residence Permit
Removal of DEFS – Existing alterations without review

11. SMD 03 OG 15-304 (HPA 15-552) 1422 Wisconsin Avenue, NW Commercial Concept
Rear addition, alterations, sign – Boulangerie Christophe

12. SMD 03 OG 16-016 (HPA 15-527) 1254 Wisconsin Avenue, NW Mixed-use (Square 1218, Lot 814)
Concept Alterations

13. SMD 05 OG 16-012 (HPA 16-020) 2920 M Street, NW Commercial Permit
Signage – Postmodern Foods

14. SMD 05 OG 16-022 (HPA 15-546) 3104 M Street, NW Commercial Permit
Alteration – fire connection

15. SMD 05 OG 16-014 (HPA 16-022) 3509 M Street, NW Residence Permit
Replacement windows

16. SMD 05 OG 16-029 (HPA 16-037) 3210 Grace Street, NW Mixed-use Permit
Blade signs

17. SMD 05 OG 15-347 (HPA 15-625) 3225 Grace Street, NW, #207 Multi-family residence Permit
Replacement door

18. SMD 05 OG 16-023 (HPA 16-031) 1000 Potomac Street, NW Office building Permit
Alterations at entrance

19. SMD 05 OG 16-015 (HPA 15-528) 1042 Wisconsin Avenue, NW Commercial Concept
Alterations to rear – Existing alterations without review

20. SMD 06 OG 16-025 (HPA 15-615) 1213 28th Street, NW Residence Concept
Rear alterations, pergola

21. SMD 06 OG 15-349 (HPA 15-398) 1250 28th Street, NW Residence Concept
Porch replacement, new front stair

22. SMD 06 OG 16-008 (HPA 15-542) 1228 29th Street, NW Residence Concept
Brick wall, site work

23. SMD 06 OG 15-345 (HPA 15-622) 1340 29th St., NW
Residence Permit Solar panels

24. SMD 06 OG 16-010 (HPA 15-536)
1241 30th Street, NW Residence
Permit Replacement roof

25. SMD 06 OG 15-260 (HPA 15-471) 2905 N Street, NW Residence Concept
New parking pad, alterations, site work

26. SMD 06 OG 16-018 (HPA 15-471) 2905 N Street, NW Residence Concept
New parking pad, alterations, site work

27. SMD 06 OG 15-343 (HPA 15-620) 3015 P Street, NW Residence Concept
Rear addition and dormer

28. SMD 06 OG 16-031 (HPA 16-039) 3043 P Street, NW Residence Permit
Parking pad

29. SMD 06 OG 16-019 (HPA 15-616) 3045 P Street, NW Residence Concept
Replacement windows, garage door, shutters – Existing alterations without review

30. SMD 06 OG 15-269 (HPA 15-486) 2815 Dumbarton Street, NW Residence Concept
Alterations, replacement roof, site work

31. SMD 06 OG 16-030 (HPA 15-481) 2712 Poplar Street, NW Residence Permit
Replacement fence – Existing alteration without review

32. SMD 07 OG 15-346 (HPA 15-103) 1502 27th Street, NW Residence Concept
Front porch, site alterations

33. SMD 07 OG 15-344 (HPA 15-320) 1617 29th Street, NW Residence Concept
Fences

34. SMD 07 OG 16-027 (HPA 15-189) 1609 31st Street, NW Residence Concept
Alteration, addition, site work

35. SMD 07 OG 15-307 (HPA 15-556) 3058 R Street, NW Residence Concept
Side addition, alterations

36. SMD 07 OG 16-028 (HPA 15-193) 3252 S Street, NW Residence Permit
Site alterations

37. SMD 07 OG 15-321(HPA 15-596) 3001 Dent Place, NW Residence Permit
Rebuild retaining wall and fence on public space

38. SMD 08 OG 15-330 (HPA 15-606) 1221 36th Street, NW Institution Concept
Addition/alterations – de la Cruz Gallery of Art

39. SMD 08 OG 16-005 (HPA 15-458) 3700 O Street, NW Georgetown University Concept
Guard booth 2nd-10/26/15

Government of the District of Columbia: Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E

3265 S St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20007

202-724-7098 anc2e@dc.gov www.anc2e.com

Business Ins and Outs
•

IN: SoulCycle Opens

SoulCycle, “the country’s full-body indoor cycle workout,” as the company describes itself, has continued its Washington, D.C., expansion. It opened Oct. 30 at 1042 Wisconsin Ave. NW near Grace Street, with a lively reception as well as some very committed fans and star instructors. The 3,500-square-foot studio holds 55 bikes along with a clothing shop and locker rooms; classes begin at $34.

IN: Glover Park Hardware Ready to Re-open

Glover Park Hardware owners Gina Schaefer and Marc Friedman report that the store will reopen at its new 7,500-square-foot location at 2233 Wisconsin Ave. NW in a matter of days. The store is in the lower front level, next to the bar, Breadsoda. After losing its lease after 10 years, the business left its old location Jan. 15 at 2251 Wisconsin Ave. NW, which will house a Rite Aid.

OUT: Georgetown Holiday Inn to Close

According to the Glover Park Citizens’ Association, the Georgetown Holiday Inn at 2101 Wisconsin Ave. NW (at Whitehaven Street) will close by the end of November. The property has been sold. Bisnow reported last year that the Holiday Inn was on the market for mixed-use development with a grocery store in the rebuild.

OUT: EagleBank to Leave Georgetown

As of Jan. 29, 2016, the Georgetown branch of EagleBank at 1044 Wisconsin Ave. NW will close permanently, according to Joseph Clarke, senior vice president and chief deposit sales officer of the bank. Accounts assigned to the Georgetown branch will be transferred to 2001 K St. NW, about 12 blocks to the east in downtown. Contact branch service manager Philomina Gomes at 202-481-7012 or by email at PGomes@EagleBankCorp.com.

IN: Georgetown Olive Oil Co.

Now, this is special: the Georgetown Olive Oil Company, “a specialty retail store for extra virgin olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars,” as it calls itself, opened Nov. 2 at 1524 Wisconsin Ave. NW, next to the George Town Club.

The store reports that it “is set up as a tasting gallery and will offer over 65 different flavors of extra virgin olive oils and aged balsamic vinegars, gourmet salts and spice blends, pastas, accessories, handmade pottery, paintings and more.”

“We pride ourselves in having the freshest and most flavorful extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) available,” said company owner Hristina Goleva.
“Georgetown Olive Oil Company’s selection includes traditional varietals, flavor fused and infused olive oils, and specialty oils along with white and dark balsamic vinegars,” the company reported. “The retail store offers its olive oils and balsamic vinegars in decorative UV protected dark glass 200ml and 375ml bottles.”

The company will carry olive oil from Chile, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, California, Cypress, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Syria and Tunisia.

Woodley Park House, Site of Quadruple Slayings, For Sale

The house in which three members of the Savopoulos family and the housekeeper were discovered slain in May is now up for sale for $3.25 million. The 10,800-square-foot house on the 3200 block of Woodland Drive NW has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

Daron Wint, 34, was charged with first-degree murder of businessman Savvas Savopoulos, 46, his wife Amy, 47, their son Phillip, 10, and housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa. Two daughters, Abigail, 19, and Katerina, 17, were away at boarding school at the time of killings. Wint and possibly accomplices are alleged to have held the group captive overnight while waiting for a $40,000 ransom to be delivered. He once worked for American Iron Works, one of Savopoulos’s businesses. Wint’s DNA was found on pizza crust in the home.

IN: Turkish Bakery Coming to Wisconsin & M

Simit & Smith, a Turkish bakery cafe with locations in New York and New Jersey, plans to open its first D.C. location at 1077 Wisconsin Ave. NW (near the intersection of Wisconsin & M), as first reported in the Washington Business Journal. A simit is — more or less — a Turkish bagel, a traditional bread eaten throughout the Balkans and the Mediterranean. The company’s website indicated that the shop plans to open this month, but it looks like that date may get pushed into next year.

Honoring Veterans’ Service, All Year Long
•

We can’t blame you, all of you, in the thousands, who showed up for the big Concert for Valor on the National Mall last year, what with the presence of Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, the Black Keys, Carrie Underwood, Dave Grohl, Tom Hanks, Will Smith and Oprah Winfrey.

But throughout the year, not only on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, Washington is a place where the idea of valor, service and sacrifice is honored all over the city, especially on the Mall, among the memorials and on the green spaces and miles of crosses at Arlington National Cemetery.

The cemetery seems at once simple and profound: the vast expanse of sky, the row upon row of markers, the names, the flags and flowers here and there and the annual ceremonies surrounding the wreath laying. It is hallowed ground for the men and women who have throughout history gone to places in the world where they’d never imagined they’d be, served and often died there. It is a place that speaks to a part of our history and to progress amid what often seems like perpetual conflict.

In Washington, you can bear witness to service at places that bear witness to the far-flung struggles in which we’ve engaged as a nation, to the leaders that led us through two major and tragic wars, to the different ways members of the military serve and often suffer.

The latest such memorial is the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial near the Botanic Garden, where a star-shaped fountain and an always-lit ceremonial flame pay tribute to disabled veterans.

On Pennsylvania Avenue, the Navy Memorial speaks to all the ships at sea, to the sailors (and aviators) that keep them afloat throughout the world in times of peace and war. The Iwo Jima Memorial, actually the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, is here and, farther off, the striking sculpture for the Air Force Memorial.

But it’s at a spacious corner of the Mall itself where our wars, our soldiers and our veterans are honored by proximity. Here is the Lincoln Memorial, presided over by Abraham Lincoln, who presided over our bloodiest conflict. And it’s his presence that speaks most honorably to the conflicts of America, the Civil War and all the others. Not far off are the shiny, dark walls of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, with the 50,000 names carved on it, to remember the cost of that war. Across the reflecting pool is the Korean War Veterans Memorial, with its company of weary, heavily armed infantry trudging up a hill. Not far off is the Roosevelt Memorial to the man who presided over our critical participation in World War II.

The National World War II Memorial, a more recent addition, shines a light on the depth and breadth of that effort, where you can still see an ever-dwindling number of veterans from that war, brought there once again to still remember.

In that corner of the Mall, the cost of maintaining this democracy, always and forever, becomes vividly real.

Check Out the Latest Issue of The Georgetowner
• November 3, 2015

Weekend Round Up October 29, 2015
• November 2, 2015

The Secret Garden

October 30th, 2015 at 08:00 PM | $19-59 | boxoffice@centerstage.org | Tel: 410.332.0033 | Event Website

Center Stage presents the lush, Tony-nominated musical based on the classic novel of the same name. The Secret Garden is an enchanting story about the pains and joys of growing up, and the beauty that often grows in the places we least expect. Special events will be offered before and after specific performances, such as family matinees with crafts, pre-show LGBTQ Night Out reception, discussions with dramaturgs, and more.

Address

700 North Calvert Street | Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Carl “EUGI” Hall at Fine Art Series

October 30th, 2015 at 08:00 PM | Event Website

Art Soiree Presents: Living Room Live Series at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

On October 30th a solo exhibition of Assorted Music Art by Carl “Eugi” Hall, fusing the worlds of art and music into one through the sound of color. Whether he is capturing a female singer pouring her heart into the microphone or a trombonist with inflated cheeks creating flawless improvisational solo, Eugi’s canvases sing with color and emotion, inviting each viewer to hear what they see.

Event is FREE must RSVP

Address

Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Georgetown; 3100 South St NW

Opening Reception of ‘Speciesism’ at P Street Gallerie

October 30th, 2015 at 06:00 PM | Tel: 202-333-4868 | Event Website

Join P Street Gallerie on Friday, October 30th from 6 – 8 p.m. for the Opening Reception of Dana Ellyn’s latest exhibition: Speciesism.

The collection features a series of Ellyn’s paintings exploring humans’ complicated and often contradictory relationship with animals. Ellyn is the artist behind some of the most popular and thought provoking paintings related to animal rights and veganism.

The exhibit runs from Friday, October 30th through Friday, December 4th.

Address

Street Gallerie; 3235 P Street NW

SPY FRIGHT

October 31st, 2015 at 11:00 AM | FREE | info@spymuseum.org | Tel: 2023937798 | Event Website

Go deep undercover this Halloween at the Spy Museum where spooks of every kind will be on the prowl. Spend the scariest night of the year at the place where disguises aren’t just for Halloween! Acclaimed professional make-up and disguise artist, Roger Riggle, will be on hand to teach the tools-of-the-trade. The Spy Store is chock full of fun and unusual Halloween Disguises including: moustaches, glasses, hats, tees & more!

Address

International Spy Museum; 800 F Street, NW

SoulCycle Georgetown Opening Party

October 31st, 2015 at 09:00 AM | Event Website

Get pumped: SoulCycle Georgetown opens its doors this Saturday and all are invited! Stop by for an all-day party from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. with dancing, DJs, a photo booth and Georgetown Cupcake treats to reward yourself post-ride!

Address

SoulCycle Georgetown; 1042 Wisconsin Avenue NW

Nick’s Annual Halloween Party

October 31st, 2015 at 09:00 PM | 10 | Tel: (202) 342-3535 | Event Website

Eat, drink, and be scary at Nick’s Riverside Grill’s Annual Halloween Party on Saturday, October 31 at 9 p.m.

$10 cash cover at the door. Best Dressed costume contest. Contest sign up at 9 p.m.

Address

Nick’s Riverside Grill; 3050 K St NW

Lululemon Athletica Shopping Event

November 1st, 2015 at 08:00 AM | Tel: (202) 333-1738 | Event Website

Elevate your style! Ground your wallet.
one day only at lululemon athletica Georgetown. This one time shopping event will be held this Sunday. Doors open at 8 AM.

Address

lululemon athletica; 3265 M St NW

Volta Park Day

November 1st, 2015 at 03:00 PM | friends@voltapark.org | Event Website

Fall is here, and what better way to celebrate that fact than enjoying some good times with your neighbors while supporting a vital neighborhood resource? Volta Park Day returns November 4th from 3-6 p.m. As always, there’ll be rides, games, drinks and plenty of food to enjoy. All proceeds go to Friends of Volta Park which supports the beautification and improvement of Volta Park

The traditional East v. West softball game will take place at 2 p.m. before the party starts.

Address

Volta Park; 34th St. and Volta Place NW

Sunday Sketch with Barbara Sharp

November 1st, 2015 at 02:00 PM | Tel: (540) 687-6542 | Event Website

Each month a local art teacher or artist leads a sketching session in the art galleries, guiding participants on style, composition, or another aspect of drawing. This month, Barbara Sharp will lead the session. The program is free and open to the public of all ages. Participants will receive free admission to the Museum. Pre-registration is encouraged. Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult. Supplies provided.

Address

National Sporting Library & Museum; 102 The Plains Road; Middleburg, VA 20117

Sparkling Holiday Champagne Tasting

November 3rd, 2015 at 06:00 PM | $59 + tax & gratuity | iricchi@aol.com | Tel: 202-835-0459 | Event Website

Taste 4 Nicolas Feuillatte champagnes (all 90 points or above) including GOLD MEDAL WINNER Palmes d’Or 2002 with food pairings at a sit-down guided tasting.

Join brand ambassador, Isabelle Bricout and learn how to drink champagne with almost everything this holiday season.

In just 35 years, Nicolas Feuillatte and his brand have climbed through the ranks to the roster of the champagne greats.

Free Valet Parking.

Address

Ristorante i Ricchi; 1220 19th Street NW

Georgetown, D.C. Honors Tennis Stars, the Peters Sisters
• October 29, 2015

Neighbors, old and new, came together at Rose Park in Georgetown Oct. 24 to dedicate its tennis courts to two black women who used it as young girls and as tennis stars, Margaret Peters and Roumania Peters Walker. The two-hour gathering of about 200 people for the unveiling of the Peters plaque was a unique and sentimental remembrance as well as affirmation of Georgetown’s African American roots. The Peters sisters grew up during a time of segregation — yet transcended it in achievement and love of their neighborhood.

The sisters won the doubles crown of the American Tennis Association for 15 years during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Roumania Peters once bested Althea Gibson, America’s first black tennis star, and Margaret Peters played tennis with movie star Gene Kelly at Rose Park, which seemed to belong to the sisters as well as the neighborhood children, but is operated by D.C.’s Department of Parks and Recreation. Nicknamed “Pete and Repeat,” who lived at 2710 O St. NW, the dynamic duo now have supporters for their induction into the tennis hall of fame.

Among the new neighbors was Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security, and his wife Susan DiMarco, who live across from the courts at 27th and O Streets NW. Among the old neighbors — those who grew up with Peters Sisters — was Daisy Peebles, who has lived her entire life in Washington, D.C.’s oldest neighborhood —along with the mother of Mayor Muriel Bowser, who grew up nearby, played in Rose Park and was baptized at Epiphany Catholic Church on Dumbarton Street.

David Dunning, president of Friends of Rose Park, led the ceremony and introduced a long line of speakers, all of whom together told a still-continuing story of black Georgetown. Dunning acknowledged the group’s board member David Abrams and Topher Matthews, one of the first to advocate the naming of the park’s tennis courts for the Peter Sisters.

Advisory neighborhood commissioner Monica Roache, who is a fifth generation Georgetowner, was also active in getting the courts named for the Peters sisters, who taught her tennis. She remembered their tennis accomplishments and said to them and to those black Georgetowners in attendance, “Welcome home.”

Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, who set up the re-naming legislation for the District government, was unable to attend because of a parents’s weekend for one of the his college-age children. At-large Councilmembers Anita Bonds and Vincent Orange were on hand to speak.

Rev. Adam Park, pastor of Epiphany Catholic Church, began with a prayer affirming the dignity of each person.

Fannie Walker Weeks and James Walker, the children of Roumania Peter Walker, spoke of their mother and aunt and how they began “to beat the boys” at the tennis courts — which used to be clay — and how they would feel “appreciated and overwhelmed today.”

Mayor Bowser took note of her family’s connection to Georgetown and also that not many streets, building or tennis courts are named after women —something she’d like to change. She saluted the Peters sisters and “this shining tennis court.”

Homeland Secretary Johnson described how he met Bowser’s mother in the White House during the visit of Pope Francis and mentioned the upcoming dedication of the tennis courts. Responding to a request for her daughter, the mayor, to attend, she succinctly responded to Johnson, “She will be there.” Johnson noted his dog uses the park, too. “Everybody knows Andy,” he said. “Andy has done more to fertilize . . . he loves to give back.” In a serious remark, Johnson said that the Walkers were married in nearby Epiphany and that Margaret Peters taught in D.C. public schools, such as Western High School, now Duke Ellington School for the Arts. The Johnson family donated the plaque.

Rose Park was one of the first integrated public parks in the city and now contains the first public tennis courts named for individuals.

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Georgetown’s TD Bank Robbed in Broad Daylight
•

Around 1 p.m, Monday, Oct. 26, a man walked into the TD Bank at 1611 Wisconsin Ave. NW and presented a note to the teller asking for money. The bank employee complied and gave him a bag of cash. The man then left the bank and opened the bag on the sidewalk near the bank, according to eyewitnesses. Ink packs in the bag —known as “funny money” — exploded, and the man ran off.

The suspect is described by the Metropolitan Police Department as a 45-year-old bald black male, who was wearing a red shirt and black baggy pants.

MPD tweeted around 2 p.m.: “Robbery of an establishment 1600 blk of Wisconsin Ave NW. lof: b/m, 45 yoa, bald, wearing red shirt, blk baggy pants.”

Police cordoned off the area around the bank, which has a parking lot and is just north of the Georgetown Exxon.

One observer at a business across Wisconsin Avenue from the bank quipped, “We’re looking for the man with purple ink.”

Blaze of Glory
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If you ever had the opportunity to sit within a couple of feet of Blaze Starr, the legendary queen of burlesque and long-time Baltimore legend, proprietor of the 2 O’Clock Club on a certain block of East Baltimore Street, you knew you were eye-to-eye with an American original.

Starr, who died Monday at her home in Wilsondale, West Virginia, was probably the last big star of what was loosely known as the world of burlesque, in which comedians told baggy-pants jokes, and young women with outsized personalities and physical attributes shed their clothes to thumping music and outrageous stage gimmicks.

Starr had the personality, and then some, and the attributes, and then some. But what she also had was a sense of humor, smarts, business acumen, a charitable streak and a propensity to get involved with major politicians, much to her own considerable pain, but also gain, in the sense of notoriety.

This from a girl who was born Fannie Belle Fleming, one of 11 children in a place that was so small that it wasn’t even a place, along Twelvepole Creek in Mingo County.

Fannie Belle ran away from home and ended up in Washington, D.C., working at the Mayflower Donut Shop. But soon enough, in spite of a lot of trepidation, she was lured into stripping for a living, and, given her genuine curvy beauty, was a major success.

Then, while working at the Sho-Bar on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, she met Louisiana Governor Earl Long, brother of former governor, then senator and assassination victim, Huey Long. Their affair, which lasted until his death in 1960, was chronicled in the 1989 Ron Shelton-directed movie “Blaze,” starring Lolita Davidovich as Starr and Paul Newman, no less, as Earl Long. The movie captured not only her dramatic life, but also American, and particularly Southern, attitudes about sex, sin, religion and, of course, politics.

Starr began stripping at the 2 O’Clock Club on Baltimore’s notorious “Block” in 1950, eventually buying the place and becoming a much-beloved citizen. The proof in the pudding is the mournful tone and praise in the Baltimore Sun obituary, in which Shelton, a former Baltimore mayor and another Baltimore iconoclast, John Waters, waxed nostalgic about Starr.

This writer, working on assignment for The Georgetowner, had occasion to interview her when she was still stripping in 1980 at the Silver Slipper in Washington, one of the last genuine burlesque houses in the city, famous as the joint where House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills met one Fanne Foxe, who worked there.

After watching Starr do her “Miss Spontaneous Combustion” act, in which a red bed exploded into smoke and fake flames while she writhed thereupon, we talked to her in her dressing room. Up close, Starr turned out to be funny, unassuming, a little flirty (like a guy running an engine to make sure it was still running properly), vivacious, smart and blunt. Her memoir, “Blaze Starr: My Life as Told to Huey Perry,” published in 1974, was still being peddled.

I told her about a 1950s rite of passage in small town America, in which I and some of my high school friends had gone to Cleveland to the Roxy Burlesque to see a show. We might even have seen her there. By present standards, this was tame but titillating stuff: baggy-pants comedian, popcorn and skin magazines, G-strings and pasties and a burning red spotlight.

“Aw, Honey, it’s gone you know,” she said. “The last time I was there, I walked in there and they had the big posters of me up there, bigger than life. Next day, they were gone and the wreckers came.”

She bemoaned the ongoing passing of her profession. “It’s the movies that’s doing it. If they’ve seen everything, they don’t want to see you peeling off a glove.”

One of her dates was Frank Rizzo, ex-mayor of Philadelphia. When we mentioned his name, she didn’t pull punches. “That S.O.B.,” she said then. He “had me thrown in jail, but he’d see me as long as nobody would see us. I never forget being treated like that. People told me I got a memory like an elephant.”

It was never serious stuff with her — “I couldn’t do it if it was” — it was a bit of a wink and a joke, with a lot of enthusiasm and energy.

“Up there, with the makeup and the lights and the dresses and wigs, that’s Blaze Starr. That’s an act. Inside, I know who I am. I’m Lora Fleming from Mingo County.

She was and remains a lot more than that.

And right now, somewhere, the big red light goes on and the drums are pounding and it’s: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Blaze Starr!”

We’ll Miss Them: Michael Stevens, Maureen O’Hara and Flip Saunders
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We’re all part of one sort of community or another, and when a community suffers a loss, we share in that loss. This month, the world of entertainment and performing arts lost two members of high achievement, one who was born and Washington and, with his father, co-produced the Kennedy Center Honors since 2003 and numerous film documentaries. The other was a legendary movie star from Hollywood’s Golden Age. The world of professional sports—locally and nationally—lost one of its most respected members, too.

This month we lost Michael Stevens, part of a major film-making family which included his father, George Stevens, Jr., a Georgetown resident. We lost Maureen O’Hara, 95, a bright, shining star in Hollywood’s golden age from the 1930s, when she came to the states as a teenaged Abbey Theatre actress, onward. This past week, we lost Flip Saunders, whose loss was deeply felt here where he coached the Washington Wizards for over two years and guided its budding superstar John Wall.

MICHAEL STEVENS, 48

The life of Michael Stevens seemed to be a story of fathers and sons and fathers and sons, twice over. He seemed destined to be in the film business one way or another. His grandfather was George Stevens, one of Hollywood’s great directors, whose work began in the silent era and progressed to such hits as “Gunga Din,” in the 1940s, and in the 1950s, winning two Oscars (for “Giant” and “A Place in the Sun”) and being nominated for “Shane.”

George Stevens Jr. followed in his fathers footstep although in his own way—as a young man he worked on many of his fathers films, then founded the American Film Institute, made a documentary about his father, and directed his own films, including “The Murder of Mary Phagan.” He produced the Kennedy Center Honors since its beginning, then co-produced with his son Michael until last year, when the relationship with the Kennedy Center ended.

Michael Murrow Stevens was born in Washington, where Stevens and his wife Elizabeth had made their home in Georgetown. He attended the Landon School in Bethesda and graduated from Duke University with a degree in English literature and political science.

While Michael ventured out on his own to work on films like “The Thin Red Line” in 1998 and two tough crime thrillers, “Bad City Blues” in 1999 and “Sin” in 2003, he worked steadily as a producer, often with his father. He shared five prime-time Emmys on the KC Honors shows aired by CBS. He also helped produce the AFI lifetime salutes to film stars over the years, and directed a number of “Christmas in Washington” variety shows.

Like his father and grandfather, he ventured into documentaries and directed, co-produced and co-wrote the celebrated 2013 documentary on the much beloved and honored Washington Post political cartoonist Herblock, called “Herblock: The Black and the White.” He also directed and co-produced the 2011 film version of his father’s play “Thurgood” on the life of Thurgood Marshall.

It seems on the bright surface of their lives that here were three men, connected by a life lived not on film, but in film, in the arts, on stages and sets, bonded by respect, talent and love, often sharing their gifts and working together in ways that few fathers and sons have the opportunity to do.

MAUREEN O’HARA, 95

They don’t make them like that anymore.

They don’t make movies like the ones Hollywood made in its own-self-acknowledged golden age and they sure as all-get-out don’t make movie stars like Maureen O’Hara, who was one of the shining lights of that era that roughly spanned the beginning of talkies in the 1930s during the Depression through the 1950s, when the major studios and their heads at last began to lose their grip on power.

For an avidly movie-hungry public trying to make it through a Depression and the tensions of a World War, the studios created clowns, comedy, spectacles, epics musicals, swashbucklers, adaptations of classics, kid movies, westerns, cops and robbers and movies dealing with serious social movies, plus a fantasy or two.

They gave them movie stars as opposed to mere celebrities, and in a densely populated firmament of stars, few female stars shined brighter than the O’Hara whose Irish-lass abundant red hair just about blotted out the sun. She was made for Technicolor, which was just beginning when O’Hara arrived from Ireland as a teenaged actress straight out of the Abbey Theatre. She proceeded to star in a black and white version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” opposite Charles Laughton as Quasimodo, hopelessly smitten with O’Hara as Esmerelda, the gypsy girl. With medieval Paris as a setting and O’Hara’s drop-dead beauty, the movie looked as if it were shot in color.

She proceeded to star in a number of grade A films, in the 1940s—“How Green Was My Valley,” set in a Welsh mining town and directed by John Ford, the anti-Nazi “This Land Is Mine,” again with Laughton and other Ford films, in which she was sometimes paired with John Wayne, the greatest man’s man star outside of Clark Gable. All the Irish got together in Ford’s irascibly Irish cliché and fantasy, “The Quiet Man,” in which O’Hara and Wayne were a battling—literally—couple—Barry Fitzgerald was a tipsy matchmaker, Victor McLaglen played O’Hara’s brother, Ward Bond played a priest, and Ireland played Ireland, only more so, with the countryside intensely green and her hair intensely red.

O’Hara also starred in numerous films in a genre of film hardly, if ever, made anymore: the swashbuckler—especially those involving pirates and musketeers, in which she resisted and dueled with swains played by Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power and Cornel Wilde. The lass could handle a sword and wear a corset properly.

O’Hara hadn’t made a film in quite a while—her last was in 1991 playing John Candy’s mother and courted by Anthony Quinn.
O’Hara died on October 24, at her home in Boise, Idaho. She lives on and on, incandescent, on Turner Classic Movies.

FLIP SAUNDERS, 60

Flip Saunders, who was coach of the Washington Wizards for a short time, made it to several playoffs with other teams including the Minnesota Timberwolves.

He never won an NBA championship. All he ever won was the respect, affection, love of the players he coached, his fellow professionals in the coaching world, and the world of hoops, and his family. He won a host of friends.

Not everybody—even title winners—can say that.

The basketball world responded yesterday and today with an outpouring of tributes from players, coaches and probably basketball scribes after it was learned that Saunders had lost his fight with Hodgkins Lymphona at the age of 60. He had been coaching in a return gig with the Timberwolves, where he was director of basketball operations.

Randy Whitman, the Wizards’ current coach, said, according to reports, that Saunders should be celebrated as a great man who was able to do much for the game he loved and the people and players he worked with. Adam Silver, the NBA Commissioner, said that Saunders’ death had “left a gaping hole in the fabric of our league.” And John Wall, who was coached by Saunders when he began his career as a number one pick said that Saunders “taught me what it takes to be a good player and a better man.”