Buried 19th Century Artifact of Georgetown's History Now on Display

About a decade ago I was poking around the then unnamed and overgrown Book Hill Park, located behind the Georgetown Neighborhood Library where I am the special collections librarian at the library's Peabody Room.  Attempting to walk up the bramble-choked original 19th century staircase that parallels the stone retaining wall fronting Wisconsin Avenue (not the staircase slightly to the east), I spotted what looked like a rusted can protruding from the ground. 

I made my way over to the artifact and attempted to pull it out of the ground but it would not budge.  No rusted can, it was attached to something much bigger.  Later that week I returned with a shovel and started to dig it out, buried as it was underneath a foot of soil.  In the process I discovered an amazing piece of Georgetown's history.

Covered with dirt and rust was a three foot long section of what was probably the stone staircase's balustrade, consisting of newel post, balusters and handrail.  The staircase led visitors up to the High Street Reservoir, designed in 1852 by Corps. of Engineer's Lt. Montgomery C. Meigs to provide water to the residents of Georgetown.

The reservoir, completed in 1865, was a well known landmark and tourist attraction.  Situated in a park-like setting, the massive masonry structure was 120 ft. in diameter and 50 ft. tall.  Another staircase, designed in 1871 by architect Paul J. Pelz, wrapped around the exterior of the reservoir and led to a walkway at the top that afforded visitors a 360* degree view from what was then known as "Georgetown Heights." 

Demolished in 1932 the reservoir site was cleared for construction of the Georgetown (then) Branch Library, which opened in 1935.  The original staircase was replaced with the current poured concrete version that leads up from the appropriately named Reservoir Road.  At the time I discovered the balustrade, it had been buried for at least seventy years but was remarkably in good shape.

With no way to clean the dirt and rust off, and no place to display it in the small and cramped Peabody Room (then located on the second floor), I took the balustrade home.  Once there I cleaned it up as best I could and placed it in my garden where it remained for the next decade! 

After the library's 2007 fire and with it the design and construction of an enlarged and modernized Peabody Room with ample exhibit space, the time had come for this important artifact to be returned to Georgetown.  Today it sits alongside books documenting Georgetown's history and underneath a framed 1757 deed that bequeathed the 1,380 acre Addition to the Rock of Dumbarton from original Georgetown property owner George Beall, Sr. to his son George, Jr.

Please visit the Peabody Room where you can (carefully) run your fingers along the top of the handrail as unknown numbers of Georgetowners and visitors did from the 1870s to the 1930s.