Town Topics

Georgetowner • April 18, 2012

Robert Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, will become Georgetown University’s new executive vice president and provost August 20, the university announced. He will serve as the chief academic officer for its main campus. 

Before serving as census director, Groves served as a professor at the University of Michigan and director of its Survey Research Center as well as a research professor in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology.

 “I am honored by the opportunity to be the next provost of Georgetown University,” Groves said. “I look forward to working with Georgetown’s world-class faculty and students to build the Georgetown of the future, one that fulfills all their aspirations.”

Georgetowner •

A free author lecture series in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of George Peabody’s arrival in Georgetown and the return of his fully restored portrait that was damaged in the 2007 Georgetown Branch Library fire.??

This May marks the 200th anniversary of 17-year-old George Peabody’s arrival in Georgetown in 1812 with his older uncle and their establishment of a dry goods store on Bridge Street, today’s M Street. Decades later, Peabody was a multi-millionaire and in 1867 he donated $15,000 to establish a library in Georgetown. Mr. Peabody believed that the only way to elevate oneself was through education. That was why he funded a library in Georgetown among dozens of other educational and cultural organizations throughout the United States. The Georgetown Branch Library’s Peabody Room was named in his honor in 1935 with the purpose to serve as a repository of Georgetown’s neighborhood history.

??The lectures begin at 6:30 p.m. each Thursday in May at the Peabody Room, located on the third floor of the Georgetown Branch Library, 3260 R Street, N.W. (corner of Wisconsin Avenue), Washington, D.C. For additional information contact Jerry A. McCoy, (202) 727-0233 or email jerry.mccoy@dc.gov.

??The line-up in May of Thursday, 6:30 p.m. author talks are:

??May 3, Garrett Peck, The Potomac River: A History and Guide

??May 10, John DeFerrari, Lost Washington, D.C.

??May 17, Michael Lee Pope, Hidden History of Alexandria, D.C.??

May 24, James H. Johnston, From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African American Family

??May 31, David Mould, Remembering Georgetown: A History of the Lost Port City

Georgetowner •

The D.C. Taxicab Commission approved a fare hike of 44 percent, effective for most cabs in the city. The per-mile fare will go from $1.50 to $2.16, and the cost for idling will go from $15 to $25 per hour. The purpose of the increase is to bring cab revenues more in line with past fares, when a zone system was used as opposed to the present meter system.

Taxicab commission chairman Ron Linton told the Washington Post that the fare hike will take effect April 21, “but not all cabs will begin charging the new fares right away. Some will need to get their meters recalibrated.”

Georgetowner •

The D.C. Zoning Commission approved a 60-day extension for comments for Georgetown University’s 2010-2020 Campus Plan.

Now in private discussions, local residents with university representatives asked for the extension, which now allows for testimony on the plan to be filed in the middle of June.

“We hope to come to some compromises on what the community needs and what the university needs,” Jennifer Altemus, president of the Citizens Association of Georgetown, told the campus newspaper, the Hoya. “I think both of our sides are very clear on what we’ve been wanting out of the process, and hopefully if we work together we can make that happen. [Private meetings] haven’t been successful in the past, but we haven’t given up trying.”

Georgetowner •

But, wait, there’s more . . . to see besides Georgetowners’ homes . . . like their gardens. The annual Georgetown Garden Tour of eight private gardens is set for Saturday, May 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Each garden presents a unique perspective on designing precious outdoor space in this historic neighborhood. The 2012 tour includes the magnificent gardens of the Bowie-Sevier house on Q Street as well as several other gardens, both intimate and grand.

Tickets are $30 before April 28 at www.georgetowngardentour.com. Tickets may also be purchased by mail: Georgetown Garden Tour 2012, 3313 P Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007 or by phone: 202-965-1950. Tour tickets are available at $35 the day of the event at any of the gardens or at Keith Hall, Christ Church, 3116 O Street, N.W.. A tea for ticket holders takes place from 2 to 4 p.m. at Keith Hall.

The Garden Tour is sponsored by the Georgetown Garden Club to benefit local organizations, with emphasis on the preservation of gardens, parks and green spaces. Past beneficiaries have included Book Hill Park, the Student Conservation Association at Montrose Park, Trees for Georgetown, Tudor Place gardens, the rose garden at Montrose Park, Rose Park and the Volta Park Habitat Garden.

Georgetowner • April 17, 2012

On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act. His signature 150 years ago freed 3,100 slaves within the nation’s capital and pushed forward the arc of freedom for all African-Americans. It is still felt to this day — especially this past week with D.C.’s sesquicentennial celebrations all around town.

Many of us began with a walk around the monuments at the National Mall, especially those of Lincoln and King, went to Frederick Douglass’s home in Anacostia, Lincoln’s Cottage at the Old Soldiers’ Home, and concerts at Lincoln Theatre. On the holiday itself, many enjoyed a parade, speeches and fireworks at Freedom Plaza. There was a brunch at the Hamilton Restaurant and a party at Lincoln Restaurant. Many in the District government have been pushing for making the holiday bigger, especially Councilmember Vincent Orange. They deserve our thanks.

At Georgetown University, a April 17 commemorative program instructed on the history of blacks, Union soldiers and contraband camps near D.C. If the federals seized slaves as wartime contraband, they had the start of a chance for freedom. We have mostly forgotten such details, and even that of the nearby university’s landmark tower, seen for miles around. It is named for Rev. Patrick Healy, S.J., Georgetown’s president in the 1870s, born of a bi-racial slave and Irish father. The young Healy would have been considered a slave except that his father send him north for his schooling.

These are stories that need to be re-told. We need to sing the African-American hymns anew as well. At one Sunday event, a black preacher said that some of us need to “break the bondage of slavery in our minds.” We have heard that before but it needs to be said again.

“We got to figure out ways to own this emancipation,” said Rev. Raymond Kemp, moderator of the Georgetown commemoration, where Mayor Vincent Gray also spoke. To that and all the other salutes to struggle and freedom, we say, “Amen.”

Georgetowner • April 5, 2012

Could there be peace in our time? In the April 2 meeting of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, a joint statement by neighborhood groups and Georgetown University asked the D.C. Zoning Commission to delay the deadline for filings on the university’s 2010-2020 Campus Plan process by 60 days.

Members of the Citizens Association of Georgetown, the Burleith Citizens Association and the ANC, all of which oppose the university’s expansion plans, and representatives from the university stood up at the meeting to affirm the surprising announcement. As it stands now, the university’s deadline for submissions is April 12, and neighborhood groups have until April 19 to respond.  If the zoning panel agrees to the request for delay, the submission and response dates will change to June 11 and June 18, respectively.

Only several weeks ago, Jennifer Altemus, CAG president, as well as student leaders and others on the university side, was lamenting the delayed decision by the zoning board.

Why the 180-degree turn? ANC chair Ron Lewis said that the delay was requested so that “we can explore the possibility of reaching common ground in our talks about the campus plan. . . We’re giving a somewhat different report than we had expected.”

“This approach reflects our continued efforts to seek common ground and to engage with city and neighborhood leaders,” wrote Rachel Pugh, director of media relations for the university, in an email. “Joining with our neighbors in requesting an extension is a meaningful sign of progress in a long process.”

Major sticking points between the parties, such as the demand that students be housed on campus by 2016, remain. But some persons in the process seem to be taking zoning commissioner Anthony Hood’s advice in February that residents and university officials meet more continually to resolve any issues affecting the neighborhood. At an earlier ANC meeting, Mayor Vincent Gray spoke of the town-gown tension and said he believed that common ground would be reached. Whether this small measure of unity displayed at the April 2 ANC meeting leads to a sea charge by which neighborhood and university leaders collaborate is anyone’s guess.

At the same meeting, the ANC voted unanimously to oppose the redrawn designs for the university’s planned Athletic Training Facility.

Georgetown’s Jack the Bulldog to Welcome Puppy Mascot-in-Training, April 13

Georgetown University’s Jack the Bulldog  is going to have to start making room on the couch and especially on the bleachers, because a bulldog puppy will arrive April 13 on campus to be trained by the boss, the veteran, the main four-legged mascot. The new guy, “Jack Jr.,” or “J.J.” for short, is a gift from Janice and Marcus Hochstetler, bulldog breeders in California, who have two children at Georgetown. This is their way, they say, of thanking the university for the education their children are receiving.

Jack recently injured his left rear leg and is expected to have surgery this month. He will be returning this fall to continue rooting on the athletes and begin teaching J.J. what it means to be a Hoya. “Jack’s presence will provide important support to J.J. since the older dog is already comfortable with his life as a mascot at Georgetown,” says Rev. Christopher Steck, S.J., associate professor in theology. “J.J. will be looking for signals from Jack, and Jack’s enthusiasm in different environments will encourage J.J.’s own.”

According to the American Kennel Club, Jack ranks 8th among 125 of the most famous dogs in pop culture. He spends his time cheering at Georgetown games (Hoyas say he is often seen attacking and eating cardboard boxes with the opposing team’s logo on them), or resting in the lobby of the Jesuit Residence before heading home to his New South apartment that he shares with Steck. 

The Washington Post reported that the new addition is not a replacement for 9-year-old Jack. J.J. was planning on moving across country since he was born in December. Steck tweeted last Friday, March 30, “Really excited about the new puppy, and just to be clear, Jack is NOT retired.”

Join Jack and J.J. for a special welcome event at Healy Circle, 4 p.m. on Friday, April 13, when Steck returns to campus with the little guy from San Diego. Meanwhile, check the university website which will map the puppy’s travels across America to his destination in D.C.

Library’s McCoy Earns Historic Preservation Award; Tale of 2007 Fire in the Comics

Jerry McCoy, special collections librarian, Washingtoniana Division of the D.C. Pubic Library, will receive an individual award from the Historic Preservation Office of the D.C. Office of Planning which chose the Georgetown Neighborhood Library project for the 2012 District of Columbia Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation. The ceremony will be held June 21. 

McCoy is well known in Georgetown for heading up the Peabody Room at the R Street public library. It suffered extensive from an April 2007 fire. Nevertheless, firefighters and staff saved 95 percent of its historic collection, including the beloved portrait of Yarrow Mamout, a early 19th-century Georgetowner who emigrated from West Africa and a popular resident at the time. (Today, the library stands fully reconstructed.)

That story was re-told in the Washington Post’s March 25 comics sections in the “Flashbacks” comic-strip. “I thought the denoument of the Yarrow story featuring the Peabody Room’s portrait and its rescue from the fire was pretty spectacular,” McCoy said.

Georgetowner •

The District Department of Transportation and the National Park Service announced last month that the first Capital Bikeshare stations have been installed on the National Mall. Two stations were installed just days before the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The new stations are located at Ohio Drive and West Basin Drive, SW near the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial; and on Jefferson Drive between 14th and 15th Streets, SW, close to the Washington Monument.
 
“We are delighted to offer Capital Bikeshare to our residents and visitors as they traverse the historic landmarks and monuments on the National Mall,” said Mayor Vincent C. Gray. “We strongly believe that a Capital Bikeshare presence on the Mall will promote greater use of bicycling and other sustainable transportation options throughout the five week festival and beyond.” 
 
The new stations are the first of five Capital Bikeshare stations planned for the Mall and they will remain in place after the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Georgetowner •

Notice those black and steel interwoven figures dominating the median of New York Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets? They’re the second installation of the New York Avenue Sculpture Project www.downtowndc.org/go/new-york-avenue-sculpture-project by international sculptor, Chakaia Booker, who unveiled them last month on International Women’s Day, more than two years after the National Museum of Women in the Arts www.downtowndc.org/go/national-museum-of-women-in-the-arts (1250 New York Avenue) teamed with the D.C. Office of Planning and other agencies to begin work on featuring changing installations of works by contemporary, world-class women artists.

New York-based Booker works almost exclusively with recycled tires that are cut, shaped and folded, then woven into large-scale expressive works fusing ecological concerns with explorations of racial and economic differences, globalization and gender. The art project has changed the look of New York Avenue, one of Downtown’s major boulevards.