Stuart Kenworthy was Rector of Christ Church Georgetown from 1991 until his retirement, November 2, 2014. He also served as a chaplain in the Army National Guard from 1994-2007. As a resident of Georgetown for more than 20 years, he speaks eloquently of the unique aspects of Georgetown as a small, supportive village in the midst of an internationally influential city. This interview is a testament to the sense of community and the exceedingly strong neighborhood spirit that has marked...

In an interview in his home with Linda Greenan and Cathy Farrell, John Laytham talks about his 50 plus years with the Cyldes Group and his involvement with a growing and changing Georgetown. John was a freshman student at Georgetown University in 1964 when he applied for a job at Clyde’s. It was a new establishment at the time, having opened on M Street just 6-months before in the precise location where it stands today. John’s first job was as a dishwasher from which he was promoted to every...

In the late 70s Gary Tischler arrived in DC from California as a young freelance writer.  He intention was to go to work for the “Washington Post” but he met Dave Roffman, second publisher of “The Georgetowner,” who encouraged him to write a story about Ted Kennedy’s campaign.  Some thousands of articles later, Gary Tischler hold the record as the longest-serving writer for that local paper.   He has written extensively about the transformation of cultural offerings in Washington over the past...

The indomitable nonagenarian, Sarah Yerkes, moved to Washington with her first husband, as she describes it, “in the spring of 1945, just before the bomb dropped. We rented a house in Georgetown that belonged to Phil and Millie Watts on 29th Street.”  So begins her interview with Cathy Farrell and Betsy Kleeblatt that covers 70 plus years of living in and helping to shape the community that she hold dear. Sarah is an architect, was partner in the landscape architecture firm Edmunds and...

Margaret Meenehan and Sharon Meenehan O’Brian shared with Cathy Farrell a brief history of the Meenehan family who owned a number of hardware stores in the DC area including the favorite one, Meenehan’s Hardware on M Street.  From a large family of Irish heritage, the brothers built am impressive hardware business in early to mid twentieth century Washington that was a staple business to the Georgetown Community.  The sisters reminisce about their childhood years and comment on taking...

Ellen Charles has been an extremely successful board director of Hillwood, the estate of her formidable Grandmother, Marjorie Merriweather Post. Ellen Charles’ s vision and leadership has taken a family home and professionalized it into a well respected museum that is a Washington treasure. Betsy Cooley and Cathy Farrell engaged Mrs. Charles in a lively interview shortly after she stepped down as Chair of the Board of Hillwood., a position she maintained for 25 years. Ellen says she left at...

Following the construction of the George Washington Memorial Parkway in the 1950’s, proposals began to emerge to turn Canal Road NW into a highway and to connect it to Virginia by building a bridge across the Potomac over a small group of rocky islets known as the Three Sisters.  Several different plans for the roads and bridges were discussed for a decade. In the late 1960’s citizens of Georgetown, students at the university and individuals from other neighborhoods in the city began to...

Sofia Owen moved to the west side of Georgetown with her new husband in 1940 from her hometown of Monte Video, Uruguay. After a brief departure while her husband was stationed in Brazil by the State Department, the Owens returned to Georgetown in 1958, this time on the east side where they have been here ever since. In her interview with CAG Oral History interviewer Ingrid Beach, Mrs. Owen remembers raising four children in “a very different Georgetown,” where fewer young families lived in the...

Dr. Jack Lynch is a third-generation Georgetowner whose grandfather was a physician and whose father was a pharmacist here. In his interview with Ronda Bernstein, he tells stories of Georgetown when it was a small village - with milk delivered by horse-drawn carts - and its transformation into a bustling social hub with the entrance of the Kennedy administration. Coming from a large family (all seven siblings were born at Georgetown Hospital), Dr. Lynch's memories cover a large variety of...

Betty Hays fell in love with Mexican art and culture while on vacation with her husband. So much so that they decided to open The Phoenix on Wisconsin Avenue and share their love of Mexico with Georgetown. As owner of one of the oldest retails stores in Georgetown, Betty has seen the area change slightly, but she steadfastly claims Georgetown has not changed very much – the character of the area is still here, “basically Georgetown is still Georgetown.” Read more about her time as a shop owner...