Walking Washington, D.C.. Barbara J. Saffir

Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) 1537 35th St., 202-337-5220, listeningandspokenlanguage.org

      (Private) former home of Sen. Prescott Bush and Soviet spy Alger Hiss 3415 Volta Place NW

      Tudor Place Historic House & Garden 1644 31st St. NW, 202-965-0400, tudorplace.org

      (Private) former home of John F. Kennedy 1528 31st St. NW

      (Private) former home of John F. Kennedy 2808 P St. NW

      Dumbarton House 2715 Q St. NW, 202-337-2288, dumbartonhouse.org

      (Private) former home of Allen Dulles 2723 Q St. NW

      (Private) S&R Foundation 1623 28th St. NW, 202-298-6007, evermayestate.org

      Oak Hill Cemetery 3001 R St. NW, 202-337-2835, nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc9.htm

      (Private) former home of Katharine and Philip Graham 2920 R St. NW

      Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection/Garden 1703 32nd St. NW, 202-339-6401, doaks.org

      (Private) former home of Sen. John Warner 3240 S St. NW

      ROUTE SUMMARY

      1 Start at the DC Public Library, 3260 R Street NW.

      2 With the library to the left, walk to the corner and turn left on Wisconsin Avenue NW.

      3 Turn right on 33rd Street NW.

      4 Turn right on Dent Place NW.

      5 Turn left on 35th Street NW.

      6 Turn left on Volta Place NW.

      7 Turn left on Wisconsin Avenue NW.

      8 Turn right on Q Street NW.

      9 Turn left on 31st Street NW.

      10 Reverse direction on 31st Street NW.

      11 Turn left on P Street NW.

      12 Turn left on 27th Street NW.

      13 Turn left on Q Street NW.

      14 Turn right on 28th Street NW.

      15 Turn left on R Street NW.

      16 Turn right on 32nd Street NW.

      17 Turn left on S Street NW.

      18 Turn left on Wisconsin Avenue NW.

      CONNECTING THE WALKS

      For companion Walk 6 (Georgetown Southwest), continue south on Wisconsin Avenue NW.

      William Wilson Corcoran’s distinguished final resting place

      6 GEORGETOWN SOUTHWEST: COVERT CUPCAKES

      BOUNDARIES: O Street NW, just east of Wisconsin Avenue NW, Blues Alley, and just west of 37th Street NW

      DISTANCE: 1.5 miles

      DIFFICULTY: Moderate due to stairs

      PARKING: Limited street parking; parking garages on M Street NW, K Street NW, and elsewhere

      PUBLIC TRANSIT: D.C.’s Circulator bus and Metrobus D5 run along M Street NW to several Metro stations.

      New money, old money, little money. Everyone flocks to Georgetown. The main difference is that some can afford to stay longer and exploit more of its many riches. But the best thing about Georgetown is free: its gorgeous, walkable streets. The entire neighborhood of Georgetown, with its Federal-style brick row houses and mash-up of mansions, became a protected historic district in 1950. Even though visitors won’t find many meaningful historical markers on the buildings, history thrives on every scenic street. If you squint your eyes and ignore the pricey electric Tesla automobiles (D.C.’s sole remaining new-car showroom), most streets almost look like they did in the 1800s—back when cupcakes first became popular.

       Start at Georgetown Cupcake, 3301 M Street NW, to beat the line that sometimes forms there for the gooey-sweet goodies. The stars of TLC’s DC Cupcakes TV show, sisters Katherine Kallinis Berman and Sophie Kallinis LaMontagne, founded it in 2008.

       Walk south on 33rd Street NW and turn right onto the brick and granite cobblestones of Cady’s Alley, where you’ll find food, furniture, and fashion boutiques in reinvented industrial buildings.

       Turn right on 34th Street NW and then left on M Street NW, Georgetown’s main drag, with oodles of restaurants, bars, and retail therapy in historic row homes and commercial buildings. Turn right past Georgetown University’s Car Barn building to climb the 75 Exorcist Steps. This steep outdoor staircase became famous in the 1973 horror flick The Exorcist when Father Karras tumbled down it. The Exorcist’s author and screenwriter is Georgetown alumnus William Peter Blatty.

       Follow the steps to 36th Street NW. Pass the Tombs restaurant and bar on the left, the Georgetown University hangout that inspired the movie St. Elmo’s Fire. Turn left on N Street NW and follow it across 37th Street NW to climb 48 stairs into Georgetown University, the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university. At the top, turn left into the Mark Lauinger Memorial Library. The granite-flecked concrete structure was designed in 1970 by John Carl Warnecke, who also designed President Kennedy’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery. The library’s vast collections, which are accessible to researchers, include the Russell J. Bowen Collection on Intelligence, Security and Covert Activities. CIA technical analyst Col. Russell J. Bowen donated most of this unparalleled collection in 1993. CIA directors William E. Colby and Richard Helms, who both lived in Georgetown, later donated papers. Exit the library and stay right on the diagonal brick sidewalk toward the O Street exit gate. On the left is Georgetown’s flagship building, Healy Hall. The massive granite building with a steeple-like clock tower was built in 1877.

       Walk east on O Street NW to 34th Street NW. On the northwest corner is the four-story brick house where then-Congressman John F. Kennedy lived with his sister, Eunice, from 1949 to 1951, says Paul Kelsey Williams’ book, The Historic Homes of J.F.K. Henry Addison also lived there. He was mayor of Georgetown before it became part of Washington, D.C. On the northeast corner is the rambling, two-story brick mansion that Under Armour sports clothing founder Kevin Plank bought in 2013, Washingtonian magazine says. In 1996, Plank started his Baltimore-based company a block away in his grandmother’s three-story town house. His “new” eight-bedroom house, with a 34-foot ballroom and a heated lap pool, was also home to longtime ambassador David K. E. Bruce, who once worked for the OSS, America’s first modern-day spy agency.

       Continue walking east on the cobblestone street with metal tracks from the defunct DC Transit streetcar system, which stopped running in 1962. On the right is the Bodisco House, famous as a federal period brick home and because Baron Alexandre de Bodisco, the 54-year-old Russian ambassador who owned it, married a 16-year-old, the Library of Congress says. Now it’s home to Secretary of State and former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and his Mozambique-born wife, Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz Kerry, heir to the ketchup fortune of her late husband, Republican Sen. Henry John Heinz III.

       Turn right on 33rd Street NW and right again on N Street NW for the Kennedys’ former home one door down on the right. They lived in this three-story brick home with green shutters with Caroline and little “John-John” right before moving into the White House. (JFK’s pal Ben Bradlee moved next door after working as press attaché for the American Embassy in Paris and then for Newsweek, says Gregg Herken’s 2014 book, The Georgetown Set.)

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