This Weekend: Dozens of (Free) Walking Tours of DC's Neighborhoods

• September 15th 2009

by Will Smith

This weekend is the semi-annual WalkingDown DC event, when scores of walking tours are held throughout the District to explore neighborhoods both mainstream and off the beaten path. It is interesting, free, and highly recommended, especially for those of you considering purchasing a home in one of the featured neighborhoods.

Most tours run one to three hours, and they are held all day Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th. There are over 100 tours in total over the two days.

The various topics and tours are myriad, but here are just a few that pique our interest:

• Southwest Washington and Waterfront Development – Saturday, 4-5:30pm
• Before Harlem, There Was U Street – Saturday, noon-2pm and Sunday, 10:30am-12:30pm
• NoMa’s Renaissance: To NPR – Saturday, 10-11am
• At Home on Capitol Hill – Saturday, 1:30-3:30pm and Sunday, 11:30am-1:30pm
• Hillcrest & “East Washington Heights” – Saturday, 2-4pm
• Explore Florida Market/Capital City Market – Saturday, 11am-1pm
• Old Takoma Park – Saturday, 10am-noon
• Historic Anacostia – Saturday, 10am-noon
• H Street Alley Exploration – Saturday, 10am-1pm

When we took that last tour, the H Street alley exploration, last year, the carriage house property we featured a couple weeks ago as our inaugural Unique Spaces column was actually part of the tour. (We can’t promise it will be this year, though.)

For descriptions and details of each tour, including where to meet, check out the website — here is a long list of all the Saturday tours, and here it is for Sunday.

For a convenient schedule of all the tours at a glance, print out this PDF version of the brochure.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/this_weekend_dozens_of_free_walking_tours_of_dcs_neighborhoods/1314.