Walking Washington, D.C.. Barbara J. Saffir
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with a red-orange door on the left at 3255. This is where Herman Wouk “began the narrative writing of The Winds of War, and (conducted) extensive research for War and Remembrance,” says the author’s website. Wouk, who celebrated his 100th birthday in May 2015, wasn’t the only hot-shot wordsmith in the neighborhood. Fellow Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis, who wrote Main Street and Arrowsmith, lived at 3028 Q Street NW in the 1920s. And Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry taught at American and George Mason universities and owned a bookstore in Georgetown called Booked Up from 1971 to 1993. The author of Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, and Terms of Endearment still runs the fine and scholarly bookshop—online and in his hometown of Archer City, Texas.
Turn left on Potomac Street NW and right on O Street NW for the tan and white St. John’s Episcopal Church on the right, where President Thomas Jefferson and Francis Scott Key once worshiped. Each spring since 1931, the church has sponsored its popular Georgetown House Tour to help support charities. Tickets include a self-guided tour of 8 to 10 coveted homes and gardens followed by tea sandwiches at the church. In the past, visitors have seen a stable cleverly converted into a home, abodes of current and former politicians, and a media honcho’s historic mansion, among others.
Continue on O Street NW and turn right on Wisconsin Avenue NW, Georgetown’s main north–south shopping street, with stores such as UGG Australia, in rehabbed row houses and commercial structures. Across Wisconsin Avenue NW is Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which was a 24-hour French bistro called Au Pied de Cochon until 2004. A brass wall plaque inside marks the table where Soviet spy Vitaly Yurchenko ordered his “last supper” before skipping out from the CIA in 1985. That same year CIA veteran Aldrich Hazen Ames traded secret documents for cash with the Soviets at Chadwicks, a nearby pub, which closed its K Street location in 2014.
Walk downhill on Wisconsin Avenue NW for Martin’s Tavern on the right. Founded in 1933, the pub often welcomed President Kennedy and hosted every president from Harry S. Truman (Booth 6) to George W. Bush (Table 12).
Continue down Wisconsin to cross M Street NW. One door down on the right at 3206 is the three-and-a-half-story building called the City Tavern Club. This private social club’s brick clubhouse is “a rare surviving example of a federal period tavern,” says the National Park Service. Built in 1796, it’s also one of D.C.’s oldest buildings. When it was a public inn, the club says it welcomed George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Continue south on Wisconsin Avenue NW and turn left into an alley for Blues Alley in a brick carriage house on the right. It calls itself “the nation’s oldest continuing jazz supper club.”
St. John’s Episcopal Church hosts the annual Georgetown House Tour.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Georgetown Cupcake 3301 M St. NW, 202-333-8448, georgetowncupcake.com
Exorcist Steps Between M and Prospect Streets NW at 36th Street NW, maps.georgetown.edu/exorciststeps
Georgetown University: Joseph Mark Lauinger Memorial Library’s Russell J. Bowen Collection on Intelligence, Security and Covert Activities 37th and N Streets NW, 202-687-7607, library.georgetown.edu/libraries/lauinger
(Private) former home of John F. Kennedy 1400 34th St. NW
(Private) former home of David K. E. Bruce 1405 34th St. NW
(Private) former home of Baron Alexandre de Bodisco 3322 O St. NW, loc.gov/pictures/item/dc0422 and lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/dc/dc0400/dc0422/data/dc0422data.pdf
(Private) former home of John F. Kennedy 3307 N St. NW
(Private) former home of Herman Wouk 3255 N St. NW
St. John’s Episcopal Church 3240 O St. NW, 202-338-1796, stjohnsgeorgetown.org and facebook.com/thegeorgetownhousetour
Five Guys Burgers and Fries 1335 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-337-0400, fiveguys.com
Martin’s Tavern 1264 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-333-7370, martinstavern.com
(Private) City Tavern Club 3206 M St. NW, 202-337-8770, citytavernclubdc.org
Blues Alley 1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-337-4141, bluesalley.com
ROUTE SUMMARY
1 Start at Georgetown Cupcake, 3301 M Street NW.
2 Walk south on 33rd Street NW.
3 Turn right into Cady’s Alley.
4 Turn right on 34th Street NW.
5 Turn left on M Street NW.
6 Walk about 1.5 blocks. After passing the Car Barn on the right, turn right to walk up the Exorcist Steps leading to 36th Street NW.
7 Turn left on N Street NW.
8 Continue across 37th Street NW to walk up the steps into Georgetown University.
9 At the top of the stairs, turn left into the Lauinger Library.
10 After exiting, stay right on the diagonal brick sidewalk to the O Street exit gate.
11 Walk east on O Street NW.
12 Turn right on 33rd Street NW.
13 Turn right on N Street NW and then reverse direction.
14 Turn left on Potomac Street NW.
15 Turn right on O Street NW.
16 Turn right on Wisconsin Avenue NW.
17 Turn left into Blues Alley.
CONNECTING THE WALKS
To reach three companion walks from Blues Alley: Head north on Wisconsin Avenue for Walk 5 (Georgetown North); head south on Wisconsin Avenue NW to the Potomac River for Walk 13 (Potomac River Panorama and Watergates); and head east on Blues Alley to 31st Street NW for Walk 7 (Georgetown Southeast).
7 GEORGETOWN SOUTHEAST: LEGENDS AND GARDENS
BOUNDARIES: O Street NW, 27th Street NW, C&O Canal, and 31st Street NW
DISTANCE: 1.3 miles
DIFFICULTY: Easy
PARKING: Limited street parking; parking garages on M Street NW, K Street NW, and elsewhere
PUBLIC TRANSIT: The DC Circulator bus and Metrobus D5 run along M Street NW to several Metro stations.
Sure, size matters. But a Renoir is a Renoir whether it’s large or small. And the same holds for Georgetown’s exquisite gardens, from pocket-size gems behind skinny row houses to magnum masterpieces at lavish mansions. A few of the gardens take to the public stage each spring at Georgetown’s Garden Tour. Some belong (or once belonged) to movers and shakers and spies. Georgetown has attracted legends since the bustling tobacco port formally became a city in 1751, named George Town, Maryland, likely after England’s King George II. Later Georgetown was