Sweetpea’s Garden

Twelve hours after the fire started at Eastern Market, the Georgetown branch of the D.C. public library, which dates to 1935, began to burn. The library housed a collection of papers and art that traces the history of the neighborhood:

Among the items in the collection, McCoy said, were files on every address in the neighborhood compiled from over “20 years worth of research.” He said the oil paintings include a very valuable one by James Alexander Simpson of Georgetown resident, Yarrow Mamout, who was a freed slave. The collection also includes copies of the Maryland Gazette newspaper from 1775 and 1776, which reported the Declaration of Independence as a news story, according to McCoy. Other items include Civil War maps.

My friend randomduck, who works in Georgetown, posted about the fire earlier today and noted that the library had been undergoing renovations, but that nothing had seemed amiss on his commute.

The official news-version of the story (from which the quote above was taken) is here.

Three beautiful things from the past week…

1. I passed a lilac bush on the way to an appointment on Wednesday morning and couldn’t resist stopping to admire them, and more importantly, smell them. I grew up with lilac bushes outside both of my bedroom windows, and their scent is one of my favorite things in the world.

2. On Friday, Megan and I got to Charlottesville too late to make the last scheduled tour of Monticello, which Megan had never seen. This turned out to be a very good thing, because it meant that her friend Carrie, who is the collections manager, gave us a private tour. For me, the highlight of the tour was going up to the dome room on the third floor, which the public does not get to see. My geeky little heart was so, so happy at being inside the dome of Monticello. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so excited to be in an empty room.

3. As anyone who knows a single woman in Washington has heard–probably a million times–the single men here are not considered to be especially friendly. So it was great fun to get to practice my flirting while in Charlottesville, where the men are much chattier. And the confidence boost from being found appealing (even by people I’m likely to never see again) is a beautiful thing, indeed.

And I’ll give the crabcake sandwich I had at Eastern Market yesterday an honorable mention for the week, since it may be quite a while before I get another one.

As I jammed my earplugs in last night after the fifth or sixth fire truck went by last night, I thought, “Damn. That must be a huge fire.”

And it was.

It turns out one of my favorite places in Washington being gutted by fire while I was tossing and turning. I’m glad I decided to get lunch at Eastern Market yesterday–it looks like it may be a while before I have the chance again.

• Historic Capitol Hill Marketplace Burns
• D.C.’s Eastern Market Goes Up In Flames

Updated: The Post’s metro columnist Marc Fisher has posted about EM on his blog, Raw Fisher. I think he captures well the place market holds in the hearts of the neighborhood and the city.