Georgetown, Washington, D.C.: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Georgetown is an area within the District of Columbia, the United States of America's Federal Capital.

Georgetown was first settled in 1696 and incorporated as a town and regularly settled in 1751 when the area was part of the British colony of Maryland, long before the District of Columbia was established in 1791. Georgetown grew into a thriving port, the farthest point upstream which oceangoing boats could reach along the Potomac River, and a key point for transferring goods, particularly tobacco, from boats on the Potomac to boats on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Though the District had long been federally controlled, Georgetown maintained a large degree of independence, and did not come into under the legal control of the city of Washington, D.C. until 1895..

The Georgetown neighborhood became a destitute slum in the years following the Civil War. As a result, many older homes were preserved relatively unchanged. The area began to be gentrified during the 1930's, as a number of members of the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt moved into the area. Today, it is reputed as the leading center of wealth and style within the U.S. capital, with many political and governmental leading figures owning expensive dwellings there. John F. Kennedy lived there while in the U.S. Senate, and went to his inauguration from the neighborhood in January 1961.

Georgetown is the primary home of Georgetown University, and is also the location of the embassies of Mongolia and Ukraine to the United States.