The Roads Less Traveled: A Back-Street Tour of Historic Georgetown, with Stops at Shops -- Most people who visit Georgetown never get off the beaten track of the M Street/lower Wisconsin Avenue axis. Too bad for them, but good for you: While they bump into each other in the crowded bottom of Georgetown, you can tour the lovely, quiet streets in upper Georgetown, where a number of historic houses and beautiful gardens lie close to fun boutiques and delectable cafes. Consider this less-traveled route.
Tudor Place, Dumbarton House, and the garden at Dumbarton Oaks are open for tours, but not every day, so call for hours if you want to incorporate house and garden tours in your back-street stroll; please note that all other houses on the tour are privately owned and not open to the public.
From the corner of Q Street and Wisconsin Avenue (a stop on the Metro Connection Shuttle's Wisconsin Avenue line), walk east along Q Street to 31st Street and take a left on 31st Street to Tudor Place (tel. 202/965-0400), an 1816 mansion and gardens where Martha Washington's descendants lived until 1984. From Tudor Place, return to Q Street and walk farther east to no. 2715, Dumbarton House (tel. 202/337-2288), a Federal-style mansion built in 1805 and filled with 18th- and 19th-century furnishings and decorative arts.
Retrace your steps as far as 28th Street and proceed north on 28th Street, stopping to admire the 18th-century estate Evermay, built by a Scottish merchant, as you continue on your way to Dumbarton Oaks Garden (tel. 202/339-6401) at 31st and R streets. From the garden, walk westward on R Street to Wisconsin Avenue, passing en route 3238 R St. NW, an early-19th-century Federal brick building once used as a summer White House by President Ulysses S. Grant -- its high elevation made it cooler than 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
You have now reached Wisconsin Avenue, just a little farther north of the hustle-bustle, but a sweet spot for shopping at one-of-a-kind shops and for enjoying a scrumptious repast. Turn south on Wisconsin Avenue to find Italian and French home and garden accessories at Amano (no. 1677, tel. 202/298-7200), beautiful stationery at Rooms with a View (no. 1661, tel. 202/625-0610), and a variety of women's trendy clothing boutiques at Sugar (no. 1633, tel. 202/333-5331), Sassanova (no. 1641, tel. 202/471-4400), Sherman Pickey (no. 1647, tel. 202/333-4212), and Urban Chic (no. 1626, tel. 202/338-5398). In the middle of the block is Patisserie Poupon (tel. 202/342-3248) -- I highly recommend that you pause for a ham-and-cheese sandwich and, absolument, for a pastry dessert: Choose from tarts, éclairs, individual little cakes, and chocolate in all its forms.
Cross Wisconsin Avenue to continue your tour on the other side. Walk south on Wisconsin Avenue to N Street and turn right, following the street to no. 3307, the brick town house where John and Jacqueline Kennedy lived when Kennedy was a U.S. senator. In the same block, a few houses up at nos. 3327-3339, are five charming houses known collectively as "Cox's Row," for owner John Cox, who built the dwellings in 1817. Cox, who was the first elected mayor of Georgetown, lived at no. 3339; Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette stayed at no. 3337 on a visit in 1824. Follow N Street to 36th Street, and turn left and again left on Prospect Street to reach Prospect House, at no. 3508. This restored Georgian-style house was built in 1788 by Revolutionary War hero and wealthy tobacco merchant James McCubbin Lingan; the house, like the street, was named for the views one once had here of the Potomac River. From here, it's a short stroll to Halcyon House, at 3400 Prospect St., whose original owner, Benjamin Stoddert, was a Revolutionary War cavalry officer and first secretary of the navy. Two hundred years ago, the Potomac River lapped right up to Stoddert's terraced garden, designed by Pierre L'Enfant.
If you still have some energy left, finish the tour by visiting a Washington hot spot, the Café Milano, 3251 Prospect St. NW (tel. 202/333-6183). Then go home knowing that you've seen more of the "real" Georgetown than most Washingtonians.
