Georgetown

Part 2 of an adventure which began on Sunday, backdated from Thursday.

Georgetown University, (O and 37th Sts. NW)

I'm sitting on a bench in front of Georgetown's iconic main building, a soaring Flemish revival castle which could well be the setting for an American version of Harry Potter.  In front of the building is a statue of John Carroll, the first Roman Catholic bishop and archbishop (of Baltimore in both cases) in the United States.  He's also the founder of Georgetown University, the country's first Catholic school - it's Jesuit, remember - which is why his statue sits outside the main building, magisterially robed in a way which might befit a wizard.  Wouldn't that be cool?  I should've gone to Georgetown...(I did actually apply for a PhD here, but they turned me down - just as well, because I've since realized that I really don't want to go into political science.)  Nevertheless, I wanted to see the main building (Healy Hall), so I made the trek, which I'll describe momentarily.  But first, more pictures:

If you're thinking that you've seen something like this before, you probably have - it's similar in many ways to the Canadian Parliament building.   My other favorite aspect of this building - besides it's general fanciness - are the little details.  Like gargoyles (see right - click on it to enlarge)!  Also, that tower has a clock in it, which chimes the quarter-hours with a tinny bell - 2:30 just now; Daylight Savings did just flip today, so I suppose it's yet to be changed.

To get here I walked from the little traffic circle where I had lunch straight west on M St., passing by and stopping at the only Walgreens in the entire District of Columbia (!).  They did not, alas, have what I was looking for (Jiffy Pizza Crust mix - very popular in the Midwest, nonexistent out here) but they did have Cadbury bars on sale, 2 for $3, far cheaper than anywhere in Southwest.  And, as I have always maintained, it is better organized and more sensible than any CVS, even the new one at Waterfront.  I'm definitely coming back.  I'm also waiting for the execs at Walgreens to ask me to start an ad campaign for them.  :)

M St. in Georgetown is lined with shops - scads of them, of every imaginable sort, practically.  Clothes shops, restaurants, coffee shops, jewelers, shoe shops, pubs, ice cream shops, jewelers, bookstores - I even saw a gentleman's club!  I walked about ten block from the Walgreens, eying the shops but resolved not to spend anything, before I began to worry that I had missed Georgetown University, my eventual goal, altogether, perhaps passing it by, and that I would soon find myself in Maryland.  I scanned the skies for that iconic spire, and seeing nothing, turned north to climb up the hill on which Georgetown is perched, hoping that I would have a better view from up there.  On the way, I passed some of Georgetown's iconic rowhouses, the most fancy of which I had to photograph:

I was just beginning to lose hope when I spotted a dark, squarish tower over the roof-line of some of the charming row-houses.  "Aha" I thought, "that looks dated and institutional - Georgetown must be that way!"  Then I rounded a corner and saw this:

So I knew I was on the right track.  And I was right about the tower - it belongs to Georgetown's hideous library:

It was built in the 1970s, and it's even uglier that the library at UChicago, something I never thought I'd say.  I can only imagine whether it's more soul-crushing than the Regenstein, though...I suppose it's just as well that I went to Chicago and not Georgetown.  At least in terms of libraries, I wasn't missing out.

Now I'm going to head back east and maybe go to a museum - but who knows what else I'll discover on this weekend's adventure!