Sitting in the living room of her lovely home on N Street, Polly Kraft gave interviewer, Michele Jacobson, a glimpse into her remarkable life in Georgetown. An established artist, whose work is exhibited at the Fischbach Gallery in New York and the Addison/Ripley Gallery in Georgetown, she moved here from New York with her well-known journalist husband, Joe Kraft, upon the election of John F. Kennedy. Following the loss of Joe, she later married Lloyd Cutler, trusted legal advisor to...

Edith Bralove moved to Georgetown in the 1960’s with her three teenage children. In her interview with Annie Lou Berman, she remembers the curfew imposed after the 1968 riots, the filming of the movie The Exorcist, and entertaining styles and nightlife. She discusses the history of her house with an incredible view overlooking the Potomac River and the imported Haitian ironwork in the back of the house. Edith also talks about Georgetown University’s plans for expansion and how it might affect...

Barbara Gordon, resident in Georgetown since 1961, was brought up on a sugar cane ranch in Cuba, she is bi-lingual and has traveled extensively. She was the first person in the United States to recognize the extraordinary art of Ferdinand Botero and to buy his works. Her art collection reflects her interest in South America and Hispanic artists but includes the Washington color school with artists such as Sam Gilliam and Gene Davis. Her husband MacKenzie Gordon was with the U.S. Geological...

Harold Sugar met his wife during the blizzard at John F. Kennedy’s Presidential inauguration – she helped push his car out of a snow bank in Georgetown. Since then, he has been an integral member of the Georgetown community as the head pharmacist of Dumbarton Pharmacy at 3146 Dumbarton Street for forty two years. Although the pharmacy recently closed in 2008, Harold Sugar helped numerous famous clients including a future President of the United States, an Attorney General, two Secretaries of...

Barry Deutschman, owner/pharmacist of Morgan’s Pharmacy at 30th & P Sts., NW., has seen his professional life in Georgetown come full circle since beginning his association with this independent neighborhood pharmacy as a part-time weekend pharmacist in the 1970s. Since purchasing the 98-year-old pharmacy in 1992, D.C. native Deutschman has retained its historic tradition and much of its appearance while updating its product line to meet the health care needs of a modern audience. An...

Ever wonder why airplanes flying to and from Reagan National Airport follow the path of the Potomac River? You can thank Gerald Brown for his part in expressing the concerns of the residents of Georgetown about high levels of airplane noise and for his relentless pursuit of an amicable solution with the Airports Authority and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Gerald and his wife, Maude, have seen many changes since moving to Georgetown in 1951. In this interview with Michele Jacobson...

Edward L. Emes, Jr. grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, joined the Marine Corps, was a member of the Ohio State NCAA championship swim team, and moved to Georgetown in the early 1950s. After living in several houses, he settled on N Street where extensive repairs were needed: “We were in Georgetown at a time when an awful lot of renovation had to be done.” In his interview with Vivienne Lassman, Ed talks about his home’s previous owners (one was Nina Gore Vidal Auchincloss), the closing of the...

Catherine Bowman, the fifth child of six, at 86 years old is a third-generation Georgetowner. Born in 1924 to a mother and grandfather that both lived in Georgetown all of their lives, she has seen many changes occur, particularly in regards to race. She loves correcting anyone that says that Georgetown was once “all-black”. In her words, “Georgetown was never ‘all-black’. They had their section and we had ours.” That section was a tight-knit community at the eastern edge of Georgetown, just...

Kay Evans tells the story of a young woman from Minnesota, who comes to Washington looking for a news job and ends up marrying a reporter who becomes a famous syndicated columnist. In her interview with Kevin Delany, Kay describes the nation’s capitol and Georgetown during the Kennedy years and beyond, a period storied for newsmakers and their sources gathering at glamorous cocktail parties and dinners seeking “The Inside Story!” for America’s news media. Interview Date: Thursday, February 4,...

Matthew Donohue is the scion of a Georgetown family with a rich history of real estate holdings in Georgetown and other parts of Washington. After graduating from Georgetown University in 1959, Matt worked for the Job Corps -- part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty Program. For the next twenty years, his job was to find and acquire Job Corps sites all over the country. He later continued in real estate, concentrating on commercial properties and keeping tabs on family tracts,...