Evening star., 1951-04-12
By George Kennedy

EFCll1llSo blldb NCOl SCtOW1 NO1AAGO
into it's own. Residents stroll the
sidewalks under the giant trees
and take note of the work of re-
construction here and there that
is going on apace. Where there's
entertaining. parties spill into the
gardens in the rear. Gowns and
dinner jackets take on added ele-
gance under the wisteria.
Georgetown starts celebrating its
.200th anniversary today. It's
residents have a lot of civic zeal
and they are not going to let the
bicentenary pass unnoticed
Despite its antiquity there will
be many among the celebrants
who feel that they discovered"
Georgetown, For it certainly was
discovered sometime in this CEN
tury, a discovery that led to one
of the most amazing real estate
comebacks in the history of
American cities.
Its Fashion Is Debatable.
Georgetown may or may not be
the most fashionable part of
Washington to live in. The fact
that this is debatable is signif-
icant. 1t is not long ago that it
was a bad case of "civic blight, +"
the disease that aff1icts older parts
of cities-a disease that in most
cases nothing can be done about
Today, Georgetown, an area 10
streets long and 10 streets wide,
has among it's population of TO-
900 or so, enough persons listed
in Who's Who and the Social
Register to make any city of a
million burst with pride.
There are Washingtonians who
can't understand it. Why any one
should want to live in Georgetown
is beyond their comprehension.
The town had held its own
through the vicissitudes of the
10Th century. the sitting of the
Potomac that ended its career as
a port; the failure of the canal
to meet competition of the rail-
road; the Civil War. when 1t was
definitely pro-Southern.
Harry w. Bowling. the auction
eer who was born in Georgetown
in 1866, remembers his elders tell
ing him about their boyhood
pranks on the Union soldiers
marching Virginia hound along
what is now M street. The boys
would throw water at them. holler
"Hurrah for jeff Davis!"-then
run.
Had Economic Integrity.
The town, unlike Washington
where everything depended on
the Federal payroll, had economic
integrity through the 10th CEN
tury. The romantic Victorian
houses which gave variety to
Georgetown's architecture, were
built in the 1880s. They were
built by people who had industrial
along the river,
lumber, coal and flour mills, or
whose money came from the own
ership of Maryland and Virginia
farms. Sa
1t had Georgetown University,
the institution of the Jesuits, sue
cessors to those who accompanied
the first colohists to Maryland.
The university grew as the sue
cessful elements of the great
Irish migration of the midcen-
tury sent their sons there. And as
it grew it concealed the perfect
18th century building from which
George Washington addressed the
students a few months before his
death with a great lowered gothic
building that dominates the
Georgetown skyline to. this day.
The town was definitely sepa-
rated from Washington. 1t was
not until near the turn of the
century when the trolley cars
started to run across the P street
bridge that Georgetown really be-
came a part of Washington.
But it was then that George
town began to go down. 1t be-
came part of the city but not a
very desirable part to live in.
Fashionable Washington then was
the area north of the White
House. Millionaires like the
Letters and the Belmonts came