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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
GTOWN_200919_014.JPG: Isolated lines, usually for furniture, clothing, or sweets.
GTOWN_200919_061.JPG: Levain Bakery
GTOWN_200919_090.JPG: Line at Nike store
GTOWN_200919_105.JPG: Kesher Israel Congregation
Organized 1911
Rebuilt 1931
GTOWN_200919_125.JPG: African American Heritage Trail, Washington, DC
Mount Zion United Methodist Church and Heritage Center, and the Female Union Band Cemetery
1334 29th Street, NW
Mount Zion United Methodist Church is Washington’s oldest Black congregation. It was established in 1816 by Shadrack Nugent and 125 other congregants who split from nearby Montgomery Street Methodist Church (now Dumbarton United Methodist) over its racial policies. The present church was completed in 1884. The cemetery, near 27th and Q streets, comprises the Old Methodist Burying Ground, founded in 1809, and the Female Union Band Cemetery, dating from 1842. The cemetery is believed to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Heritage Center (2906 O Street), which houses church records and exhibits, is an early Old English style cottage.
GTOWN_200919_131.JPG: Thank you for social distancing
GTOWN_200919_132.JPG: Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, the first Black Methodist Church in Washington, DC, founded October 16, 1816, is designated a District of Columbia Historic Landmark. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1975.
GTOWN_200919_144.JPG: Gun Barrel Fence
Washington, D.C.
This robust fence in front of a historic Georgetown home is likely made from hundreds of recycled Revolutionary War firearms.
LOCAL LORE HAS IT THAT the stout iron fence surrounding numbers 2803 and 2805 on P Street in Georgetown is fashioned from hundreds of recycled firearms.
The historic resident, Reuben Daw, was one of several Georgetowners who lent the government emergency cash on the eve of the British invasion in 1814. After the smoke settled the War Department lacked the ability to repay their loans in a timely manner, and proposed repayment in kind with surplus military gear that was lying around.
You can read one version of the story in a 1911 issue of Popular Mechanics, which reported on the decision “to let those who so desired go to the navy yard and take anything in the way of castings that they could use. Reuben Daw took advantage of this opportunity and asked for a consignment of antiquated flintlock muskets which were rusting in a neglected pile in an old warehouse. He received permission to remove them and took them to Georgetown.”
Apparently the aging hoard of firearms had its provenance in a British surrender during the Revolution, and by 1814 the Brown Bess muskets were only worth their weight in scrap.
The gun barrel fence is significantly more robust than other neighborhood fences, with each upright measuring about an inch in diameter. And upon close examination stubby iron sights are visible on some, but not all of the posts. One final bit of supporting evidence is the pointy spiked tops, which are clearly separate inserts rather than wrought from the same piece of metal as the tubes.
These three contemporary observations are about as far as the facts go in corroborating the aforementioned tale. A deep dive in the newspaper archive reveals that the first mention of the gun barrel fence appears in an anonymous submission to the Washington Bee on September 21, 1907, nearly a century after the fact. Verbatim copies of the same article were also subsequently picked up in the Washington Evening Star (1907), the Washington Herald (1911), Popular Mechanics (1911, the only version online without a paywall), and the Washington Post (1921). So there is the possibility that this entire thing is the invention of one writer who shopped the same piece around to all the local publications.
Still, it very well may be true! Gun barrel fences were definitely a thing in Washington, and it is known that the Arsenal at Greenleaf point was ringed with one until 1902. The uprights in Georgetown strongly resemble gun barrels, and who knows what stamps or markings are hidden underneath their thick coating of paint.
The above was from https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gun-barrel-fence
GTOWN_200919_158.JPG: 2803 P Street
c 1843
Foundation for Preservation of Historic Georgetown
Easement acquired December 1979
GTOWN_200919_181.JPG: Church of Two Worlds
Washington, D.C.
A Spiritualist house of worship where believers communicate with the dead in the spirit world.
FOLLOWERS OF THE SPIRITUALIST FAITH believe that the soul continues to exist after the death of the body and that believers can communicate with the dead. Spiritualists believe that the deceased can continue to grow and evolve in the afterlife, and as such we can learn a lot from communicating with them.
In a quiet corner of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. you’ll find a Spiritualist house of worship, the Church of Two Worlds, referring of course to the spirit world and our Earthly realm. Housed in a former Methodist church building, it is the oldest Spiritualist church in the district, dating back to 1906.
The first thing you notice about the Church of Two Worlds are the stained glass windows. Coupled with the tan brick exterior and lofty wooden doors, it looks like your typical local church. But the Church of Two Worlds is far from typical.
Spiritualism reached its peak between the 1840s to the 1920s, reaching some 8 million followers at its height, mostly from the upper class. Today it is considerably more niche: Though the front doors of the Church of Two Worlds lead to a grand, spacious hall, the small audience means meetings are often held in a smaller room in the back.
Church attendees receive a book of Spiritualist hymnals which are read from throughout the service. The church also offers healings, a type of Spiritualist ritual, group meditation, and literature on how to build your own private altar at home. Spiritualists believe in the power of their faith to cure diseases and will gladly share advice with visitors. Though it is far from a requirement, attendees sometimes recite mantras and reach out to spirits during a visit to church.
The above was from https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/church-of-two-worlds
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Wikipedia Description: Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georgetown is a neighborhood located in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., along the Potomac River waterfront. Founded in 1751, the city of Georgetown substantially predated the establishment of the city of Washington and the District of Columbia. By 1776, Georgetown was one of the largest cities in Maryland, and retained its separate municipal status until 1871, when it was annexed by the City of Washington. Today, the primary commercial corridors of Georgetown are M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, which contain high-end shops, bars, and restaurants. Georgetown is home to the main campus of Georgetown University, as well as the embassies of France, Mongolia, Sweden, Thailand, and Ukraine.
History:
First settled by Europeans in 1696, Georgetown was incorporated as a town and first regularly settled in 1751, when the area was part of the British colony of the Province of Maryland (initially in Frederick County and later in Montgomery County), later one of the 13 colonies. Situated on the fall line, Georgetown was the farthest point upstream to which oceangoing boats could navigate the Potomac River. It grew into a thriving port and became a key point for transferring goods, particularly tobacco, from boats on the Potomac to boats on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
Origin of the name:
Georgetown was founded in 1751 during the reign of George II of Great Britain in Frederick County, Maryland (in a section later to become Montgomery County) by George Beall and George Gordon as the Town of George. Given the curious coincidence of the both of the founders' first names and that of the English king at the time, historians dispute the source of the name of the town: One theory suggests that it was designated to honor King George II, while another argues that it was named for its founders.
Early history:
George Washington frequented Suter's Tavern in Georgetown, and worked out many l ...More...
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2020 photos: Well, that was a year, wasn't it? The COVID-19 pandemic cut off most events here in DC after March 11 and then the BLM protests started followed by the child president trying to steal the election in November. Trump's handling of the pandemic has been a series of disastrous missteps and lies, encouraging his minions to not wear masks and increasing the deaths here. As the chant goes -- Hey, hey, POTUS-A; how many folks did you kill today?
Number of photos taken this year: about 246,000, the fewest number of photos I had taken in any year since 2007.