Introduction
Once again, I'd like to welcome you to Georgetown! Before we talk Kennedys, I figured I'd share some background information about the neighborhood for you. Located above the banks of the Potomac River in Northwest DC, Georgetown was founded in 1751, forty years before DC was established as the Nation’s Capital. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, it was a thriving shipping and commercial center for tobacco and heavy industry surrounded by water-powered textile and flour mill, foundries, warehouses, dockside wharves, a rope works, a paper factory, and the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal which carried coal, stone, and other freight. Surrounding you right now were once the elegant homes and mansions of wealthy landowners, shipbuilders, merchants, and land speculators. By the 1920s, Georgetown gained a reputation as one of the worst slums filled with dilapidated homes and a deteriorating waterfront. The trend began to reverse in the 1930s with President FDR’s New Deal program and reached an apex when JFK resided there beginning in 1946 until January 20, 1961 when he was inaugurated the 35th, youngest elected, and first Roman Catholic President of the United States at the age of 43. From those days on, Georgetown has turned into a fashionable enclave for Washington’s elite – media figures, celebrities, and politicos, members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and Supreme Court justices. The Kennedys’ lived in seven different homes in the neighborhood. Other sites you’ll get to see include the homes were Jackie lived after her husband’s death, the home where they first met, the homes of a few of their best friends, the church they worshipped in, and where John asked for Jackie’s hand in marriage. In addition, some of you may be intrigued as to the real estate of these homes. Therefore, I will also mention house descriptions and current estimated property values. Please note that all the houses on this tour are privately owned and are not open to the public.
Now proceed westbound on N St. until you see 3260 on your left side.
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