Georgetown is bounded by the Potomac River on the south, Rock Creek to the east, and Glover Park to the north, with Georgetown University on the west end of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is situated on bluffs overlooking the Potomac River. As a result, there are some rather steep grades on streets running north-south. The famous "Exorcist Steps" connecting M Street to Prospect Street were necessitated by the hilly terrain of the neighborhood.

The primary commercial corridors of Georgetown are M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, whose high fashion stores draw large numbers of tourists as well as local shoppers year-round. There are also several high-end developments on K Street, on the waterfront, featuring outdoor bars and restaurants popular for viewing boat races. Between M and K Streets runs the historic Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, today plied only by tour boats; adjacent trails are popular with joggers or strollers.

Georgetown is home to the main campus of Georgetown University, as well as the embassies of France, Mongolia, Thailand, and Ukraine. Other landmarks include:

- Dumbarton Oaks, where the United Nations was outlined in 1944.
- The Old Stone House, built in 1765, located on M Street is the oldest original structure in Washington, D.C.
- Mount Zion Cemetery, which offered free burials for Washington's earlier African-American population.
- Tudor Place and Dumbarton Court
- The Oak Hill Cemetery, a gift of William Wilson Corcoran whose Gothic chapel and gates were designed by James Renwick, is the resting place of Abraham Lincoln's son Willie and other figures.

History

First settled 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. It grew into a thriving port, the farthest point upstream which ocean-going boats could navigate the Potomac River, and a key point for transferring goods, particularly tobacco, from boats on the Potomac to boats on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

The home of Francis Scott Key was in Georgetown. Doctor William Beanes, a relative of Key, captured the rear guard of the British Army while it was burning Washington. When the mass of the army retreated, they retrieved their imprisoned guard and took Dr. Beanes as a captive to their fleet near Baltimore. Key went to the fleet to request the release of Beanes, was held until the bombardment of Fort McHenry was completed, and gained the inspiration for The Star-Spangled Banner.

Georgetown was founded in 1751 in Frederick County, Maryland (in a section later divided to become into 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.

Merger with Washington

After the American Revolution, Georgetown became an independent municipal government of the federal District of Columbia along with the City of Washington, City of Alexandria, and the newly created County of Washington and County of Alexandria (now Arlington County, Virginia). It was officially known as Georgetown, D.C.

Georgetown was not formally annexed by the City of Washington until 1871, and remained nominally separate until 1895. The streets in Georgetown were then renamed to conform to the street names in use in Washington.

Later history

Many African-Americans moved to Georgetown following the Civil War, establishing a thriving community, but an 1890 flood and expansion of the railroads brought destitution to the C&O Canal, and Georgetown became a depressed slum. As a result, many older homes were preserved relatively unchanged.

The waterfront area retained its industrial character in the first half of the 20th century. Georgetown was home to a lumber yard, a cement works, and a meat rendering plant, and its skyline was dominated by the smokestack of a garbage incinerator. Indeed, in 1949, the city constructed the Whitehurst Freeway, an elevated highway above K Street, to allow motorists entering the District over the Key Bridge to bypass Georgetown entirely on their way downtown.

As the only existing town at the time, Georgetown was the fashion and cultural center of the newly-formed District of Columbia. As Washington grew, however, the center of social Washington moved east across Rock Creek to the new Victorian homes that sprang up around the city's traffic circles, and to the gilded age mansions along Massachusetts avenue. While many "old families" stayed on in Georgetown, the neighborhood was well past its prime by the early 20th century. The neighborhood began to return to its past glory when gentrification began during the 1930s, as a number of members of the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved into the area. By the 1950s, a wave of new post-war residents arrived. Many of these new residents were well-educated, from elite backgrounds and they took a keen interest in the neighborhood's historic nature. At about the same time, the Citizens Association of Georgetown was formed. The area reached the height of fashionablity when Georgetown resident John F. Kennedy was elected president. Kennedy lived in Georgetown in the 1950s as both a Congressman and a Senator. Parties hosted by his wife, Jackie, and many other Georgetown hostesses drew political elites away from downtown clubs and hotels or the upper 16th Street corridor. Kennedy went to his presidential inauguration from his N Street townhouse in January 1961. Since then, Georgetown has acquired a reputation as the leading center of wealth and style within the U.S. capital.

Today, many leading figures in politics, media, and commerce reside in this upper-bracket community. High-end developments have revitalized Georgetown's formerly blighted industrial waterfront. One remnant is the District's old refuse incinerator smokestack, preserved as a historic landmark and, as of 2003, incorporated into the layout of a newly built Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Popular culture

Numerous movies have been filmed in Georgetown, most notably the 1973 horror film "The Exorcist," which was set in Georgetown. Several scenes of the movie were filmed in Georgetown, including the climactic scene where the protagonist hurls himself down the 75-step staircase connecting Prospect Street with M Street below at 36th Street; also the 1984 "Brat Pack" classic "St. Elmo's Fire" was set in Georgetown, though portions were filmed at the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Maryland. The 1987 film "No Way Out" featured as a plot device, a Georgetown Metro stop, although in actuality there is no Metro station in Georgetown.

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA.ORG (JUNE 2006)