This weekend is WalkingTown DC, full of free walking (and biking) tours all across the city.

Here are some of the tours that catch my eye. Except for the Florida Market one, I haven’t been on them, so I can’t vouch for them. Still, it’s hard to go wrong with a WalkingTown tour.

Explore Florida Market: I went on this tour last winter, hosted by Richard Layman and Frozen Tropics. It’s a glimpse of a side of DC most people never see. You tour DC’s largest functioning wholesale food market and see the stores that also sell retail, where you can buy food items just like the restaurants do. It’s also facing substantial development pressure. Will new mixed-use development be able to coexist with a working wholesale market? 9-11 am at New York Ave Metro (outside Florida Ave exit).

After you finish, you’re right near the start of the Gallaudet University Campus Tour, 11 am-noon at the Gallaudet Visitor’s Center lobby (8th St Street and Florida Ave, NE). The tour is repeated from 2-3 pm.

The Secrets of Federal Center SW: This area used to be much different than the monolithic concrete office buildings of today. Some of the history remains. 10am-noon or 1-3 pm at Smithsonian Metro (outside Independence Ave exit).

Blagden Alley and Naylor Court: Alley Life in DC, 1850s to the Present: After the Civil War, freed slaves moved to DC and settled in the back alleys of black neighborhoods. Most of the buildings they lived in were never very solid, and are gone, but a few residential alleys remain to this day. Noon-2 pm at the southeast corner of 9th and N, NW (near Mt. Vernon Square Metro).

Neighborhoods you may not have been to: DC is more than Dupont, Adams Morgan, and Capitol Hill. Each neighborhood has unique history, great architecture, and its own community. If I were around (and had enough time) I’d check out Eckington: Washington’s Urban Oasis, 1-2:30 pm at New York Ave Metro (Florida Ave exit); History of Brookland, many times throughout the day at St. Anthony’s School cafeteria, 3400 12th St, NE; and Hillcrest and East Washington Heights, 2-4 pm at Hillcrest Recreation Center, Camden and 32nd Streetss, SE.

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Tagged: alley dwellings, bicycling, dc, events, florida market, housing, pedestrians, public spaces

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.