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Gary Tischler • April 14, 2015

Mayor Muriel Bowser will deliver her first State of the District address—based on the theme of “Pathways to the Middle Class”—5:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 31, at the Lincoln Theatre.

The address concludes the mayor’s “Pathways to the Middle Class Tour,” in which she engaged in a week-long public effort to highlight ways her administration is and will create pathways to the middle class for all D.C. residents, an effort that began with a rollout of a program planned to improve child care across the District in neighborhood and home-based facilities .

District residents can expect to hear other matters addressed by the mayor, including the District budget, the state of the marijuana initiative, crime, transportation,  relations with the federal government,  affordable housing, the dramatic changes in the District and its neighborhoods. 

As is the case with speeches like these—the State of the Union speech, for instance—they tend to look forward, and or tout past achievements. As Mayor Bowser has only been in office for three months, this will be an address that’s likely to address future plans and needs rather  than past achievements, although it is fair to say that the mayor has been busy.

Look to our April 8 issue and read about the Georgetowner’s recent sit-down interview with Mayor Bowser.

Georgetowner •

Cultural Leadership Breakfast, Featuring Kim Sajet

April 9th, 2015 at 08:00 AM | $15 for George Town Club members $20 for non-members | richard@georgetowner.com | Tel: 202 338 4833 | Event Website

Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to hear from and interact with National Portrait Gallery Director Kim Sajet in the elegant and intimate setting of the George Town Club. Join club members and the people behind the new developments in the visual and performing arts in D.C. at Georgetown Media Group’s next Cultural Leadership Breakfast: Thursday, April 9, from 8 to 9:30 a.m.

Address

The George Town Club; 1530 Wisconsin Ave NW

You Are Invited to Our Opening Celebration of Parc Riverside

April 2nd, 2015 at 07:00 PM | rsvp@parcrsvp.com | Tel: 703-465-0500

Toll Brothers Apartment Living cordially invites you to experience a new level of luxury on the Capitol Riverfront. Join us for a complimentary night of live music, great local dining and drinks, and a special guest appearance from the Nationals Presidents. The
Opening Party will be from 7-9 PM.

Address

Parc Riverside; 1011 First Street SE

National Cherry Blossom Festival Paper Tube Shelter Challenge

April 4th, 2015 at 01:00 PM | $5 Members, $10 Non-members | Tel: 202-272-2448 | Event Website

Pre-registration required. Price per participant: $5 Members | $10 Non-members

Design, model, and build shelters inspired by the work of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who builds both permanent and temporary structures with recyclable paper tubes. We’ll bring the tubes, you bring the creativity as we work together to build the biggest and strongest paper tube structures.

Address

National Building Museum;401 F Street NW

2015 Innovative Leadership Awards Dinner

April 7th, 2015 at 06:00 PM | 250-350 | Event Website

Leadership Greater Washington’s 2015 Innovative Leadership Awards Dinner will be held April 7; celebrating innovative leadership and community partnerships at the Fairmont over a networking cocktail hour and seated awards dinner. The organization boasts some of the top community leaders from the business, government and non-profit fields within the Greater Washington region. This year’s theme will honor a list of individuals and organizations for their out-of-the-box thinking.
Address

Fairmont Washington, DC – Georgetown – 2401 M Street, NW

Caitlin Franz • April 13, 2015

As the weather warms, the petals of Washington’s most famous trees – the gift of the Japanese people in 1912 – will begin to descend, decorating the sidewalks, lawns and roads around the Tidal Basin with cheery, cherry reminders of the renewal of spring.

One of the best locations to enjoy the blossoms is the historic Dumbarton Oaks estate, where the gardens are one of the major works of landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. The property was owned by Mildred Barnes Bliss and her husband, diplomat Robert Woods Bliss, who could not have had more appropriate last names to match this haven.

The estate, library and art collections were given to Harvard University in 1940, with 27 acres of the gardens given to the U.S. government to be made into a public park. The gardens are preserved as part of a Harvard initiative that supports garden and landscaping studies.

The Dumbarton Oaks Gardens are open to the public daily from 2 to 6 p.m. A brief docent-led garden tour takes place at 2:10 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. The tours begin across from the Garden Gate House, just inside the entrance to the gardens at R and 31st Streets.

March 15 marked the beginning of the gardens’ regular season, a few days before the start of the 2015 National Cherry Blossom Festival. However, because Mother Nature is not always as ready for spring as we are, the garden is subject to closure due to hazardous weather conditions.

For another unique perspective this spring, check out these opportunities to view the cherry blossoms from the water:
Potomac Riverboat Company offers a special cruise departing from Georgetown’s Washington Harbour through April 10. The narrated 50-minute tour features the Embassy of Sweden, the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Tidal Basin. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for ages 2-11. Tickets may be purchased at the ticket booth or online at potomariverboatco.com.

Boomerang Boat Tours offers an hour-long cruise along the Potomac with beautiful views of the 3,750 cherry trees. The route also passes by the memorials and landmarks, along with the Memorial and 14 Street Bridges. Tickets may be purchased at georgetowndc.com.

Cherry Blossom Paddling Tours allows you to experience the cherry blossoms on a three-hour kayaking trip. An instructor is there to assist kayakers every step of the way. The trek begins at the docks at Key Bridge Boathouse and heads out to East Potomac Park. Cherry blossoms are sure to line the river. For more information, visit boatingindc.com. [gallery ids="102025,134911" nav="thumbs"]

Peter Murray •

This week has brought a string of high-profile announcements on new businesses opening in Georgetown.

First came news that Kickstarter darling Crumbs & Whiskers leased space on O Street and obtained the necessary zoning approvals to open, clearing the remaining obstacles to opening. Owner Kanchan Singh told the DCist that the cat café is “solidly tracking towards a summer opening.” Crumbs & Whiskers will be the city’s first cat café.

Another more established start-up, online hipster glasses outlet Warby Parker, announced Thursday that the company signed a lease in Georgetown at 3225 M St. NW.

The announcement follows news that Warby Parker will open its first Washington, D.C., location in Shaw, at the Shay development on 8th and Florida Avenue. The Georgetown space used to house True Religion.

Lastly, casual French steakhouse and mussel bar Maxime opens today on M street. The concept comes from Moe and Joe Idrissi along with Ben Kirane of Thunder Burger and Bodega fame. The location formerly housed Rialto and, before that, was the spot for the legendary Guards Restaurant, which had its run from 1966 to 2012.

The menu prominently features steak frites and mussels in addition to a number French hors d’oeuvres including quiche, French onion soup, charcuterie with rustic bread, and a Belgian-inspired list of specialty beers and cocktails. Maxime is located at 2915 M St. and is open daily from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Georgetowner •

Ever since Muriel Bowser – not unexpectedly – won the November general election, becoming the District of Columbia’s second female mayor and the second-youngest of either sex, she has been enjoying an extended honeymoon with the city’s residents and, by and large, the media.

Honeymoons are common for newly elected officials, though their duration tends to be unpredictable.

In a way, the whole process imitates how people end up married. There is that first, exciting meeting and flush of curiosity among the public, the media and the new candidate, followed by an odd kind of courtship played out in town forums and debates (the gotcha-eager media watching every step). Then there’s commitment, as the winning candidate makes promises that she or he may or may not keep. An engagement party – in the form of inaugural bashes, ceremonies and parades – makes things official. And they do solemnly swear.

But what happens next is never quite what anybody – candidate, constituents or the press – thinks it is going to be. Right from the start, life comes barreling down, in some cases almost on the morning after the morning after (Mayor Vincent Gray, anyone?).

“Expect the unexpected,” said the 42-year-old Bowser of her job. On March 20, a busy day at the mayor’s office, she had just settled down for an interview with The Georgetowner. “You have to be ready for surprises.”

It was interesting to watch the process as – with an early announcement, back in spring 2013 – Bowser moved from being a Ward 4 council member to a citywide candidate.

Over that period of time, we’ve had the opportunity to observe her on the campaign trail, where she grew steadily in confidence against a seasoned group of campaigners, including the scandal-plagued incumbent mayor Vincent Gray. She won the Democratic primary going away.

Her general election campaign against Independents David Catania and Carol Schwartz was different in tone and in practice. She became a candidate who was very much in control of her campaign, and the campaign in general. We talked to her then at a crowded, millennial-oriented coffeehouse in Petworth, a scene representative of the changes the city was experiencing. If anything, she was more confident than ever, dismissing questions about the possibility of a tight election.

“To me,” Bowser said then, even after limiting the playing field to four debates, “the biggest thing was being able to meet and talk with the people across the diverse neighborhoods of this city. I know who I am and where I come from, but here, in this process, I saw and engaged the whole city. It was revealing to me how much all of the people in this city have in common, and, at the same time, the diversity of hopes, needs, dreams – the resources of the same people.”

We saw Bowser build her transition team – which included former mayors Marion Barry, Sharon Pratt, Anthony Williams and Adrian Fenty – and later become one of the chief mourners for Barry, who passed away unexpectedly and to much citywide sorrow in November.

We watched her being sworn in along with a number of new members of the District Council (Bowser called them NKOTBs, New Kids on the Block), as well as the District’s first elected attorney general, Karl Racine, who ruled that the mayor’s $20-million initiative to empower young boys and men of color passed constitutional muster.

We sat down with her for an interview last month, then watched her deliver a rousing hope-filled, project-filled, initiative-filled and slogan-filled State of the District Address March 31 at the historic Lincoln Theatre, right next to a D.C. icon, Ben’s Chili Bowl, on the U Street Corridor. Outside, demonstrators rallied, calling for more affordable housing, more help for the homeless and the protection of neighborhoods.

There are several reasons for the honeymoon that, despite the demonstrators, Bowser is experiencing. One of them is plainly the growth of her public persona. From being a relatively reserved council candidate, mentored and picked by Fenty, she has grown to be – over the course of the extended campaigns, her victory and her first three months in office – almost omnipresent in the public eye and the media. She appears to relish that part of the job, and doesn’t intend to change it.

For instance, she moved to more approachable digs on the third floor of the Wilson Building, with a view – from airy, brightly lit and modern rooms – of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Willard Hotel, the National Theatre and buses rolling along the boulevard. On a table in her office sit Barack Obama’s “Audacity of Hope” and Marion Barry’s autobiography, “Mayor For Life.”

“It’s a conscious decision to be closer to everything,” Bowser said. “Sometimes, the office can isolate you from staff – and real people.”

To all appearances, she was ready and eager to take on the work of being mayor. “I’m ready to go to work,” she said at her inauguration. “But the reality is that it’s a sobering, humbling experience to deal with the daily tasks, the duties, the things that surprise.” She reiterated: “Expect the unexpected.”

In the first month of her tour of duty, there were not one, but several, winter storms that closed schools and made for an endless series of decisions about deployment, preparedness and resources. Then there was the fatal fire at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station, putting both Metro and the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department under scrutiny. Bowser was emphatic, saying that the D.C. departments had acted professionally and appropriately.

Later, she hired Gregory Dean, retired chief of the Seattle Fire Department, as the District’s new fire chief. During an interview with The Georgetowner, Bowser said that the problems at the fire department – especially relating to its EMS component – were “sobering.”

During her first (almost) hundred days in office, Bowser seems to have been everywhere. Searching for budget ideas, she held four community forums throughout the city. She traveled to Texas, to New York City – and got a favorable bond-rating increase – and to San Francisco for a fruitless push to host the Olympics. And she made sure that residents knew what she was up to, with newsletters, emails and a hefty social-media presence.

“We are going to be the most transparent administration that you can possibly be,” Bowser said.

In the new position, her life has changed considerably. What does she miss? “Driving myself where I want to go, when I want to go,” she said. “Did you ever want some Cherry Garcia ice cream and just go get it? I used to like just going around the city, driving around, meeting people, checking things out. That can’t be done anymore, and I understand that.” To relax from the stressors of her new job, she has begun to allow herself some time off, such as a weekly massage at the Four Seasons.

She readily acknowledged being “a hometown girl,” adding, “I was raised in Ward 4 in a large family. Our parents made sure we had what was needed. We did not go hungry. We went to good schools, and we got our education.” Her higher education reflects her varied interests: a bachelor of arts in history from Chatham College, a master’s degree in public policy from American University.

In many ways, Bowser is all about the future, even while acknowledging the contributions of people like Barry and earlier mayors and leaders.

“The city’s changing enormously,” she said. “We have to make sure that we don’t lose people because they can no longer afford to live here. But, you know, when we’re talking about ‘One City,’ we’re talking about getting the neighborhoods to pull together. It’s not about divisions in race, or money, even. It’s about pulling together.”

Now, the mayoral city slogan is: “We are Washington, D.C.”

“The city council is no longer the city council of the past,” she said. “We have a number of new people on the council who are young, smart, able and imaginative. Frankly, their talents should be used to head committees that are now part of the Committee of the Whole.” A veteran of the council herself, Bowser said that she sees this arrangement as a better division of work: “I hope they revisit the organization of the council.”

Like many politicians, she seems to have a preference for talking in slogans, peppered with the acronyms of Twitter and Facebook.

In her State of the District Address, titled “Creating Pathways to the Middle Class,” the middle-class thematic came up a number of times, none more moving and pragmatic than when Bowser described the world in which she grew up, raised by middle-class parents.

“My parents bought their first home in 1960, when the average price of a home was $15,000. Today, it’s $500,000,” she said. “We have to make sure that if we’re going to be a city where families can stay and grow, we must do more to create opportunities for them. It always means creating pathways to the middle class.”

She used the phrase “fresh start” more than once – although not in terms of the streetcar project to which she committed $350 million more so that it would reach Georgetown, among other places. She rattled off a series of projects: building new housing, providing affordable housing, changing the landscape of Anacostia, preserving and expanding the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program, new education and workforce-training efforts, programs to get and keep residents by putting them to work and letting them succeed.

“Because, we know, when they succeed, we all succeed,” she said several times, using another oratorical trope in her growing rhetorical toolbox.

Most of her measures were greeted with loud applause, the 50 or so protesters outside the theater notwithstanding.

“We are a growing city, a world-class city,” Bowser said. “But we face a large $250-million deficit, which requires tough decisions. But I will balance that budget, with the help of the residents of this city, and I’ll deliver it tomorrow [April 2] to the city council for its approval.”

Which she did. In order to balance the budget, the tough decisions included increasing sales taxes and cutting funds for the University of the District of Columbia and Medicare payments.

No doubt there will be arguments over these and other choices. But for now, Mayor Muriel Bowser is still on a kind of honeymoon. Even the realities of the $12.9-billion 2016 budget won’t change that – yet.

Mayor Muriel Bowser: Get to Know Her

Muriel Elizabeth Bowser, Mayor of the District of Columbia, was born Aug. 2, 1972, in Washington, D.C. She traces her Washington roots through five generations. Her middle name – Elizabeth – is from her maternal great-grandmother, Elizabeth Brown.

Bowser grew up in North Michigan Park, the youngest of five children. Her father, Joe, an advisory neighborhood commissioner, has been a community activist since the mayor was a little girl. “His legacy is part of her,” Bob King, the city’s longest-serving advisory neighborhood commissioner and a family friend, told the Washington Post.

When she was born, her closest sibling in age was Mark, 10 years old. Twins Martin and Marvin were about to begin high school and the eldest daughter, Mercia, was getting ready for college. Her mother, Joan, recalled that Muriel grew up almost as an only child.

She graduated in 1990 from Elizabeth Seton High School, an all-girls Catholic high school in Bladensburg, Maryland. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in history from Chatham College in Pittsburgh and a master’s degree in public policy from American University. Before entering politics, she worked for State Farm Insurance.

She began her political career in 2004 when she ran for the local ANC and represented the neighborhood of Riggs Park, where she bought a house several years earlier. In 2006, she was re-elected.

When Adrian Fenty became mayor in 2007, Bowser was the campaign coordinator for Ward 4, which Fenty represented in the District Council. In a special election to fill his seat, she won with 40 percent of the vote. In 2008 and 2012, Bowser was re-elected, winning with 97 percent of the vote both times.

Bowser was chairwoman of the Council’s Committee on Economic Development, which helped to create affordable housing, passed legislation to build a new soccer stadium and secured a portion of the Walter Reed campus for D.C. As chairwoman of the Committee on Government Operations, she worked to pass comprehensive ethics reform, improve the efficiency and safety of the Metro system and increase transparency in government contracting.

On March 23, 2013, Bowser announced that she would run for mayor in the 2014 election. She won the Democratic primary on April 1, 2014, with 43 percent (42,045 votes) of the vote versus incumbent Mayor Vincent Gray’s 33 percent (31,613 votes).
In the general election, Bowser won with 80,824 votes. She took office Jan. 2 as D.C.’s seventh elected mayor. [gallery ids="102038,134728" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

No single group of Americans is as revered in American hearts and minds – minds, especially – as the Founding Fathers, that group of giants from South and North who brought about a revolution.

No single man is more revered in American hearts and minds – hearts, especially, but also imaginations and passions – than Abraham Lincoln, the man from the Midwest, self-taught in almost everything he knew.

This city may bear Washington’s name, but it is not Washington’s city. This is Lincoln’s city.

Emancipation was born and given voice here by Father Abraham. Everyone comes to see Washington’s monument – that challenge to the sky itself, as straight as a soldier’s back on parade – but it’s rare to see weeping in its presence or a sudden, thoughtful stillness.

Everyone is drawn to that stone siren-song of a Lincoln Memorial on the Mall. They gather to sing, to bring on the Easter sun, to commemorate, commiserate and commune before Daniel Chester French’s stunning statue, that seems capable of tears and laughter, of aging and of humbled body and soul.

Everyone comes and came to the man in the big chair, even Richard Nixon. Lincoln finished the unfinished business – unfathomably furious and ferocious – that the Founding Fathers, large as they were, would not wrestle with.

Lincoln led the country at its deepest dark hour, he danced with the bear of what slavery had wrought: an all-consuming war, whose most notable and last victim he became.

This is Lincoln’s city. We are coming up on the 150th anniversary of his assassination by a man Lincoln had seen perform Shakespeare at the National Theatre. Ford’s Theatre – where he was felled by a still-resounding shot from that actor’s derringer – remains a theater, but it is at the same time and at all times a shrine. This is the place and the city where he died, early the next morning, in a boarding house across 10th Street.

This is Lincoln’s city. Out in Petworth, at the site of the Soldiers’ Home, is Lincoln’s Cottage, where he spent time away from the fetid heat, arriving on an a gray horse, at times in the company of his much spoiled and loved son Tad. For a few years, his son Willie was buried in Georgetown at Oak Hill Cemetery.

This is Lincoln’s city. Our great national free-verse poet Walt Whitman, who nursed wounded soldiers pouring in from battles and lived near the cottage, saw him daily. Whitman said, he “looks. . .as the commonest man. … I see very plainly Abraham Lincoln’s dark brown face, with the deep-cut lines, the eyes, always to me with a deep latent sadness in the expression.”

The “commonest of men” was the noblest American of them all. This is his city, our captain, the emancipator, our better angel.

Commemorating Lincoln’s Assassination
A list of events and exhibits to experience history and to experience the nation’s capital, as we commemorate the loss of one of our greatest leaders, Lincoln.

A list of events and exhibits to experience history and to experience the nation’s capital, as we commemorate the loss of one of our greatest leaders, Lincoln.

April 9
Cottage Conversation with Don Doyle and Sidney Blumenthal
Historian Don Doyle discusses his book, “The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War,” with journalist Sidney Blumenthal, former aide to Bill Clinton. Tickets are $10 for the lecture and $10 for the reception. For details, visit lincolncottage.org/cc-doyle-2015/. President Lincoln’s Cottage, Upshur Street at Rock Creek Church Rd. NW.

April 14-15
The Lincoln Tribute
This continuous event will mark the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. Ford’s Theatre will be open overnight, presenting Ranger talks, the one-act play “One Destiny” and panel discussions about the life, assassination and legacy of our 16th president. On the street outside, all day and all night, living historians will provide first-person accounts about the end of the Civil War, the experience of being inside the theater at the moment of the assassination, medical reports from the Petersen House and the impact of Lincoln’s life and death. The morning of April 15, Ford’s will mark Abraham Lincoln’s death at 7:22 a.m. with a wreath-laying ceremony. Church bells will toll across the city, as in 1865. Tickets are required for entry to the Ford’s Theatre campus. 10th Street NE between E and F Streets. Call 202-347-4833.

April 14-15
Ford’s Theatre Behind-the-Scenes Tour
Author and Ford’s Theatre Society board member Brian Anderson leads a behind-the-scenes tour of Ford’s Theatre based on his book, “Images of America: Ford’s Theatre.” 514 10th St. NW. Call 202-347-4833.

April 15
Midnight Tour with James Swanson
For the history buffs and night owls, James Swanson, author of “Manhunt,” leads a midnight tour of Ford’s Theatre. 514 10th St. NW. Call 202-347-4833.

April 17
Fortune’s Fool: Life of John Wilkes Booth
In Fortune’s Fool, historian Terry Alford provides a comprehensive look at the life of the figure whose life has been overshadowed by his final, infamous act. A book signing will follow the program, which begins at noon. National Archives. 700 Pennsylvania Ave N.W.

April 18-19
On the Trail of the Assassin
This event, featuring historical demonstrations, Civil War reenactments, walking tours, performances and more, will run Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the Dr. Samuel Mudd House Museum. Event admission is $5 per car. House tour admission is $8 for adults and $2 for ages 6-16. 3725 Dr. Mudd Rd., Waldorf, Maryland. Call 800-766-3386.

Through May 25
Silent Witnesses: Artifacts of the Lincoln Assassination
This exhibition at the Ford’s Theatre Center for Education and Leadership displays a collection of artifacts that were in Ford’s Theatre or carried by Lincoln on the night of his assassination, including the contents of Lincoln’s pockets, his top hat and the gun used. 514 10th St. NW. Call 202-347-4833.

Through May 31
Assassinations in the Capital Tour
This 90-minute tour covers two miles, starting at the Crime Museum and ending at Lafayette Square with a stop by Ford’s Theatre. Participants will learn about assassinations, attempted assassinations and other crime history in the nation’s capital. 575 7th St. NW.

Through Jan. 10
‘President Lincoln Is Dead’: The New York Herald Reports
For the first time since 1865, this Newseum exhibition brings together all seven New York Herald special editions from April 15 of that year, beginning with the 2 a.m. edition, containing the earliest Associated Press report that Lincoln had been shot. 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Call 202-292-6100. [gallery ids="102042,134724" nav="thumbs"]

Peter Murray •

This weekend, the Georgetown Business Improvement District will widen sidewalks — between 29th and 31st Streets — on M Street by a whopping eight feet to accommodate increased foot traffic caused by tourism around the National Cherry Blossom Festival and parade. In addition, the Circulator bus will offer free northbound trips up Wisconsin Avenue NW from 30th and K streets, thanks to BID. Lastly, area drivers can receive discounted parking in Georgetown lots Saturday and Sunday if they buy online.

The sidewalk widening will be the first of its sort this year, though BID has widened walkways in Georgetown on three other occasions, the latest of which occurred when Georgetown University and George Washington University had overlapping parents’ weekends last fall. The business organization plans to extend sidewalks for coinciding Georgetown and GW graduations in May and for the Georgetown French Market later this month.

The widening is a key part of the Georgetown 2028 15-year action plan, which aims improve the business district by modernizing aspects of the historic neighborhood and upgrading how Washingtonians access it.

Robert Devaney •

Mayor Bowser gave her State of the District Address March 31. She voiced a commitment to improved education in the District, from early childhood education to adult education opportunities and job-training programs. Bowser’s address surprised many when she promised that the much-maligned Streetcar will soon run on H Street and Benning Road. But surprise turned to mild shock when she added the project would eventually span from Georgetown to east of the Anacostia River.

“We all know that the streetcar has been long on promises but short on results,” Bowser said. “That changes now. I promise you that we will get the Street Car along H Street and Benning Road line up and running. Then, we will extend the line to downtown Ward 7 so that Councilmember Alexander’s constituents along Benning Road can ride to Union Station and eventually all the way to Georgetown.”

Robert Devaney • April 9, 2015

The Georgetown House Tour, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Saturday, April 25, will open the doors to eight houses in town. One of the highlights of the 84-year-old tour is the 1797 mansion built by John Thomson Mason, nephew of George Mason, and called Quality Hill. Reportedly, Thomas Jefferson stopped there for lunch. It sits at the corner of 35th and Prospect Streets. One of its recent owners was Sen. Clairborne Pell (D-R.I.).

Other houses on the tour include one of on N Street: the oldest portions of this residence were originally built in the 1890s. The property was subsequently acquired by Stanley Woodward, a friend of FDR, and was expanded to include a new three-story structure at the front of the property. The current living room was designed as a recreation of the music room of Number 20, St. James Square in London, a room designed by Robert Adam in 1772 and its plaster ceiling took 18 months to complete by hand.
Another house — on 31st Street — was termed “the only remaining example of a late Victorian cottage” by the National Building Survey. It was built between 1878 and 1880 by Albert B. Jackson. According to tour officials, it is a “fine example of a cottage-style detached residence with elaborate wood decoration. The current owner undertook an extensive restoration to restore more of the original Victorian character and charm.”

Also on the tour is a 34th Street house that sits with its historic Italianate/Victorian façade intact: “This home was completely renovated in 2014 by its current owners, partners in a Georgetown architecture firm, to include a a skylit contemporary stairway with glass railings, modern kitchen and a 45-foot-long living and dining space,” according to tour guides.

Tickets for the tour are $50 (advance) and $55 on the day of the tour. The tour’s Patrons’ Party will be held April 22 at the home of Deborah Winsor on Dumbarton Street NW. Visit www.georgetownhousetour.com for more information.

Robert Devaney •

The Jackson Art Center at 3050 R St. NW has successfully negotiated with the District government an extension of its lease until 2018 of a 1890 building, which closed as a D.C. public school in 1970. The artist collective began renting the building during the 1980s and now pays a monthly rent of $12,850, according to D.C. General Services Department. The current lease was set to expire in June of next year. The artists would like to get a longer lease with the city for the property, which recently had new windows installed. The space allows for 45 artist studios.