Throughout its history, Georgetown has been at the center of Washington's political and social life. As early as 1789, Washington and Jefferson met in a local tavern to plan the new capital. The Marquis de Lafayette, who fought with us in the American Revolution, made a triumphal return to Georgetown in 1824 and was feted at Tudor Place by the granddaughter of Martha Washington.While Georgetown's star faded in the late 1800s, it rose to new heights when members of the Roosevelt Brain Trust moved to Georgetown in the 1930s. After World War II, Georgetown's political salons drew participants from all quarters. The glamorous Senator and Mrs. John F. Kennedy lived at 3307 N Street. Members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, Foreign Service officers, Supreme Court Justices and newspaper columnists all lived within blocks of each other. They met in the drawing rooms of Georgetown's handsome houses where you might hear Secretaries of State Dean Acheson and Christian Herter discussing the Marshall Plan, Ambassador Charles Bohlen explaining the Soviet Union, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger debating the Vietnam War. Ambassador David Bruce might be discoursing on China, Washington Post executives Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee discussing Watergate and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance pushing the Panama Canal treaties. After
the Cold War, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state, both lived in this part of Georgetown while they served under President Clinton, who himself had lived here as a student at Georgetown University. World political leaders and national politicians can be seen coming and going at all these houses just as they have been for more than 200 years.
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