Taking a Walk Into Georgetown’s Past

There’s more to the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, D.C., than fancy homes. There’s lots of hidden history, too, according to Mary Kay Ricks, who leads a new two-hour walking tour there.

Ricks, 50, chucked a 20-year law career with the U.S. Labor Department to start her new enterprise. During six months of research at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and the Peabody Collection, she learned Georgetown was founded in 1751 by Scottish tobacco merchants and enjoyed its 19th century heyday as a canal transportation-hub for wheat, lumber and coal. It lapsed after railroads wrecked the canal business, but was revived via gentrification in the 1930s.

The tour includes Georgetown’s only remaining pre-Revolutionary structure, the Old Stone House; its only remaining tobacco warehouse; the home where John F. Kennedy lived when elected president; and the C&O; Canal. Tours ($12 per person) are by appointment. Call (301) 588-8999.