West End / Downtown (June 13, 2020)
We walked from Georgetown along N Street and back along M Street on a sunny Saturday afternoon. It was relatively peaceful after the chaos of the previous week.
We passed by the Francis-Stevens Education Campus, which despite the sign, is now more accurately called School Without Walls at Francis Stevens. Francis-Stevens which serves preschool through eighth grade was under-enrolled and slated for closure when it merged with the School Without Walls high school in 2014. Although Francis Stevens shares an administration with School without Walls, the high school students are at a different campus. Unlike the high school which is a magnet charter school, Francis Stevens is run as a traditional public school and accepts all students within its enrollment boundary. We think that it may be the first school that we have passed that has not had a recent renovation. We have noticed gardens planted by the students on the grounds of many of the schools we have passed. With the students at home because of the virus, we hope someone is picking and eating these school grown vegetables.
The West End primarily consists of glass and concrete office and apartment buildings as well as hotels. Here is an example.
However, we did pass a number of more traditional buildings.
We also passed by the headquarters of the National Geographic Society. Like many of the buildings downtown, its ground floor was boarded up, a consequence of the recent riots and looting.
Walking The District 