Bite-Size Tours, offered at 12 noon each weekday September 26 - 30, are abbreviated tours making them the perfect size for a lunchtime journey. Grab a coworker and get outside for an educational walk through DC’s neighborhoods and institutions. All bite-size tours are under an hour and few tours require reservations.

Thursday, September 29

Mount Vernon Triangle Emerges
Meet and end at Eighth and K Sts., NW, at Carnegie Library, south side.

Metro Start: Gallery Pl-Chinatown; X2, 80 buses
Metro End: Gallery Pl-Chinatown; X2, 80 buses
Fitness: Low, 8 blocks
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Subjects: Development, Neighborhood History, Public Art

Walk through Mount Vernon Triangle to learn about the history of this once forgotten neighborhood, including its rebirth, and its new retail, offices, and condos. This tour includes a walk past the remaining historic buildings, discussion about the social and economic forces that led to its decline, and the current revitalization. Tour particiapnats will also have a chance to visit a new condo, office building, or a historic church.

Presented by Cultural Tourism DC member organization Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District and led by Executive Director William McLeod.

NoMa: From the Beatles to NPR
Meet at New York Ave-Florida Ave-Gallaudet U Metro station, Florida Ave. exit, 2nd and N Sts., NE by Au Bon Pain. End at Union Station Metro, First St. and Massachusetts Ave., NE.

Metro Start: New York Ave-Florida Ave-Gallaudet U, Florida Ave. exit
Metro End: Union Station
Fitness: Low, 1.1 miles
Stroller accessible
Audio Enhancer
Subjects: Architecture, Development, Neighborhood History

NoMa (the area north of Massachusetts Avenue) is a long-neglected part of DC that is now in the midst of a great renaissance. See where the Beatles played their first U.S. concert, hear the area’s rich history, and learn how the New York Avenue Metro station sparked the sleek new development underway now in DC’s most connected neighborhood.

Presented by Cultural Tourism DC member organization NoMa Business Improvement District (BID) and led by NoMa BID Marketing & Events Manager Rachel Davis.

On View at the American University Museum
Meet and end at the information desk inside the American University Museum entrance located inside the Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

Metro Start: Tenleytown-AU, East exit
Metro End: Tenleytown-AU, East exit
Fitness: Low, < 1 mile
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Subjects: Architecture, Gallery, Museum

Participate in a unique docent-led tour through the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. On display are six extraordinary exhibitions inlcuding, the Gifts of Duncan Phillips; Wayne Barrar: An Expanding Subterra; Re-viewing Documentary: The Photographic Life of Louise Rosskam; Inner Piece: Works from the Collection of Heather and Tony Podesta; Bruce Conner: An Anonymous Memorial; and Seismic Dream: a sculpture and sound installation by sculptor Pattie Porter Firestone and composer Barbara Buchanan. Experience the works gifted to the American University Museum by co-founder of The Phillips Collection, photographs of subterranean spaces where people live, work, and play, works by one of America's pioneers of documentary photography, cutting-edge art rarely seen in DC, an artist's response to 9/11, and an artist's "dreamscape."

Presented by Cultural Tourism DC member organization American University - Katzen Arts Center and led by American University Museum docents.

Note about directions: From Tenleytown-AU Metro station, East exit, take complimentary AU shuttle bus from 40th and Albemarle Sts., NW. Exit the third stop Nebraska Ave., NW before Ward Circle. Entrance is around the corner on Massachusetts Ave., NW. Metered parking is available in the garage located on Massachusetts Ave., NW.

US Department of the Interior Murals Tour
Meet and end inside the lobby, US Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, NW.

Metro Start: Farragut West; Foggy Bottom-GWU
Metro End: Farragut West; Foggy Bottom-GWU
Fitness: Low, 5 blocks
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Reservations required
Subjects: Architecture, Historical Figure/Personality, Public Art

Discover the art and architecture that made the Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior Building a "symbol of a new day" during the Great Depression. The Interior Museum Murals Tour visits photographic murals by Ansel Adams and many of the more than 50 New Deal Era mural panels painted by artists including Maynard Dixon, Gifford Beal, and John Steuart Curry.

Presented by Cultural Tourism DC member organization US Department of the Interior Museum and led by Coordinator of Outreach and Public Programs Diana Ziegler.

Windows to War on the Civil War to Civil Rights Downtown Heritage Trail, West Loop
Meet at 14th St. and Pennsylvania Ave., NW, near Willard Hotel. End at Freedom Plaza, 13th and E Sts. NW.

Metro Start: Metro Center
Metro End: Metro Center
Fitness: Low, 5 blocks
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Neighborhood Heritage Trail
Subjects: Civil War, Historical Figure/Personality

This tour explores important Civil War sites on the west loop of the Downtown Heritage Trail: Civil War to Civil Rights. Presented by Cultural Tourism DC and led by Heritage Programs Historian Mara Cherkasky.

Friday, September 30

Before Harlem, There Was U Street
Meet outside U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo Metro station, 13th Street exit, 1240 U St., NW. End at 14th and U Sts., NW.

Metro Start: U Street/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo
Metro End: U Street/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo
Fitness: Low, 1 mile
Stroller accessible
Subjects: Ethnic Heritage, Neighborhood History

Explore the neighborhood that was shared by African American intellectuals, business leaders, and families of all economic levels. The businesses they owned and the houses they lived in are featured on this walk. U Street was dubbed “Black Broadway” for the numerous movie theaters, nightclubs, and ballrooms frequented by jazz musicians like Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Jelly Roll Morton, and the Duke himself. You’ll see a theater where these performances took place, the first full service YMCA for African Americans, one of the few hotels that welcomed a black clientele, and the first memorial to African American soldiers who fought in the U.S. Civil War. A home occupied by the Ellington family as Duke grew up is also included. U Street was hit hard by the riots of 1968 but today it has rebounded to become a must-see corridor for out-of-town visitors and locals alike.

Presented by Cultural Tourism DC member organization Washington Walks and led by Washington Walks tour guide Amy Kunz.

DC's City Hall: Musical Chairs
Meet at NE corner of Fourth and D Sts., NW. End at the Wilson Building, 14th St. and Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

Metro Start: Judiciary Square, 4th Street exit
Metro End: Metro Center, 12th and F St. exit
Fitness: Low, 1 mile
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Subjects: Neighborhood History

The story of who runs DC is a complicated one. The location of DC’s seat of government is just as complicated. This tour will show you the places where our decision-makers have sat.

Presented by Cultural Tourism DC and let by Heritage Programs Historian Mara Cherkasky.

On View at the American University Museum
Meet and end at the information desk inside the American University Museum entrance located inside the Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

Metro Start: Tenleytown-AU, East exit
Metro End: Tenleytown-AU, East exit
Fitness: Low, < 1 mile
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible
Subjects: Architecture, Gallery, Museum

Participate in a unique docent-led tour through the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. On display are six extraordinary exhibitions inlcuding, the Gifts of Duncan Phillips, Wayne Barrar: An Expanding Subterra, Re-viewing Documentary: The Photographic Life of Louise Rosskam, Inner Piece: Works from the Collection of Heather and Tony Podesta, Bruce Conner: An Anonymous Memorial, and Seismic Dream: a sculpture and sound installation by sculptor Pattie Porter Firestone and composer Barbara Buchanan. Experience the works gifted to the American University Museum by co-founder of The Phillips Collection, photographs of subterranean spaces where people live, work, and play, works by one of America's pioneers of documentary photography, cutting-edge art rarely seen in DC, an artist's response to 9/11, and an artist's "dreamscape."

Presented by Cultural Tourism DC member organization American University - Katzen Arts Center and led by American University Museum docents.

Note about directions: From Tenleytown-AU Metro station, East exit, take complimentary AU shuttle bus from 40th and Albemarle Sts., NW. Exit the third stop Nebraska Ave., NW before Ward Circle. Entrance is around the corner on Massachusetts Ave., NW. Metered parking is available in the garage located on Massachusetts Ave., NW.

Penn Quarter
Meet outside Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter Metro station, 701 Pennsylvania Ave., NW.

Metro Start: Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter
Metro End: Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter
Fitness: Low, 1 mile
Wheelchair accessible
Stroller accessible

“Penn Quarter” describes downtown's Seventh Street corridor, where the 19th century meets the 21st. Hip hotels, restaurants and loft apartments continue to sprout up amidst attractions like the International Spy Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Shakespeare Theatre and National Building Museum. Most of these are housed in buildings constructed during the 1800s, making this walk an irresistible urban scavenger hunt to discover a bygone era--a time when Chinese, German and Italian immigrants lived and worked on and around Seventh Street. If you know where to look, you can find the old U.S. Patent Office where newcomer Emile Berliner filed applications for the first microphone and disk record ever invented, where shopkeepers once “lived above” and “worked below,” and the ornate archway welcoming you to DC’s Chinatown.

Presented by Cultural Tourism DC member organization Washington Walks and led by Washington Walks Founder Carolyn Crouch.