Ground was broken in 1828 for the canal with the purpose to ship goods from Washington DC to Pittsburg since the Potomac river was not navigable because of falls & rapids. Although by the time the canal was finished the railroad had been put in which made the canal obsolete by 1924. In 1971 it was established as a National Historical Park.
Park rangers took us out on the boat & gave us a narrative of what life was like back then & what the canal was used for.
One of the most interesting things about these boats is that they were pulled by mules walking a towpath alongside the canal.
This is M St., one of the main thouroughfares through Georgetown, lined with shops & restaurants. It is ALWAYS busy with cars & people!!
We had never really spent alot of time in Georgetown looking at the historical buildings, so we grabbed a map and took a self-guided walking tour.
Our 1st stop was at Thornton's St. John's church, which, with only a 6 year gap from 1831 to 1837, has been holding Anglican services since 1804. Regular attendees were Dolly Madison & Francis Scott Key!
Along with historically significant homes there was also alot of attention to places JFK & Jackie Kennedy had lived, which were quite a few!! (there were 10 in all). Below is the where they lived during the 1960 Presidential campaign.
These were a grouping of five Federal style townhomes built by future Georgetown mayor John Cox in 1817 now called Cox's Row.
Holy Trinity Church was established in 1794 & is the oldest church to have remained in continuous operation in the nation's capital! It was founded by Archbishop John Carroll the 1st Catholic bishop in America, & a cousin to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. JFK & family frequently worshipped here. I wish we could have gone in, it looked beautiful!
Georgetown University. Now this is an old campus and gorgeous!! Several of the buildings are listed as National Historical Landmarks.
On the left is Healy Hall, in the right, Copley Hall, and on the bottom, White-Gravenor Hall.
After dinnner, we did something we wouldn't normally do, but we stood in line for 2 hours for cupcakes!!! Yes, cupcakes!! For those of you who haven't heard, there is a cupcake shop in Georgetown, called "Georgetown Cupcakes". It was started in 2008 by 2 sisters, Sophie La Montagne & Katherine Kallinis, who gave up thriving careers to open their own cupcake store. Using their grandma's recipes, they have developed a business that now sells 5,000 cupcakes a day!!! The TLC television network picked up their story & now they have a TV show about their business every week called "DC Cupcakes"!! Thus the long lines!! It was fun & it's another story to add to our growing list of things we have experienced here in DC!!!
As Dan & I say "Seize the Day!!!"
No comments:
Post a Comment