The area is also home to many stately brick mansions that make you wonder who lived and who lived there. Often it is a wealthy person, but in some cases who who. Media, political and entertainment powerhouses such as Madeline Albright, Ben Bradley, Catherine Graham, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Elizabeth Taylor call Georgetown home. But it wasn’t always Washington’s allure.
“In the early 20th century, Georgetown was a dump of sorts,” said George Derek Musgrove, co-author of the 2017 study Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in a Nation’s Capital. speaks.
Most of the old houses are in disrepair, and the area was inhabited by working-class Irish and African-Americans. Then, as government employment exploded during the New Deal, Ivy League graduates moved in. They furnished their homes in a variety of styles until a national enthusiasm for historic preservation took hold. In 1950, “Old Georgetown” was designated a Federal Historic District, with all restrictions on residential modifications.
“By In 1960, when John Kennedy left his Georgetown mansion on N Street for the White House, he couldn’t afford to get in, even if he wanted to,” Musgrove said.
Many residents support efforts to keep things more or less the same as they are now. Katherine Emerson, whose family lives near Dr. Howard, sponsored the Prospect Street Citizens Association several years ago to block conversion of condominiums that would block views of the Potomac River from local residents. cooperated in its establishment.
When the Transformers arrived, the group had new goals.
It’s not that the Society was against celebrating the history of cinema. In fact, its members argued that the conversion of condominiums would threaten what should be a landmark. (and still is): Steep steps on Prospect Street, built in 1895, featured in The Exorcist. (Think of a rolling priest.)
