Get your kicks with WalkingTown, DC Fall Edition, Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20!
Fleeting fall weather provides the perfect backdrop for DC locals to explore their city with more than 120 free, guided walking and bike tours! Discover a new spot or revisit old favorites with professional tour guides and community leaders.
Search tours by theme to find your favorite topic!
Check the schedule at www.WalkingTownDC.org or call 202-661-7581
Sample tours of Shaw:
Shaw: Where DC Comes Together, Part I
Saturday, September 19
10 am – 12:30 pm
Meet inside Great Hall, Historical Society of Washington, DC, 801 K Street, NW
Nearest Metrorail/Metrobus: Mt Vernon Sq 7th St-Convention Center Metro station (Green and Yellow lines)
End at Azi’s Café, 1336 Ninth Street, NW
Shaw has always been a crossroads. Today, the Washington Convention Center dominates Shaw’s southern half, but it once consisted of woods and a few farms. Notable historic figures lived and worked in lower central Shaw, including explorer John Wesley Powell, African American U.S. Senator Blanche K. Bruce, and historian Carter G. Woodson. This half-mile walk includes visits to view selected building interiors. Led by Shaw Main Streets Executive Director Alexander M. Padro and presented by Shaw Main Streets.
Shaw: Where DC Comes Together, Part II
Saturday, September 19
1 – 3:30 pm
Meet on northwest corner of Seventh and R Streets, NW
Nearest Metrorail/Metrobus: Shaw-Howard U Metro station (Green and Yellow lines)
End at Nellie’s Sports Bar, 900 U Street, NW
Entertainment has long been the focus of central Shaw’s northern half – from the Howard Theater, where every star in the black entertainment pantheon performed, and the pool hall where Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington decided to become a musician, to two sites that hosted baseball teams. Highlights of this half- mile tour include a renovated movie theater building and the city’s first African American YWCA. Led by Shaw Main Streets Executive Director Alexander M. Padro and presented by Shaw Main Streets.
Rediscovering Mount Vernon
Saturday, September 19
12 noon – 1:30 pm
Meet and end at Carnegie Library, south side, Eighth and K Streets, NW
Nearest Metrorail/Metrobus: Gallery Pl-Chinatown Metro station (Green, Yellow, and Red lines)
Walk the Mount Vernon Triangle to learn about its history and rebirth, and the new retail, offices, and condos of this once forgotten neighborhood. This one-mile tour will include a walk past remaining historic buildings and discussion about the market forces that lead to its decline and current revitalization. The tour may stop at a new condo, office building or historic church. Led by Bill McLeod and presented by Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District.