Last week, the Ghosts of DC blog posted a picture I’d not seen before — a baseball game or practice, at Georgetown University circa 1900, outside of Healy Hall and Old North.
The article had a link to the original photo in Georgetown’s archives. and after downloading the photo I decided I’d take a crack at colorizing it.
So far, I’m not very far advanced.
I’ve put in maybe an hour and a half into this. I’ve clipped the sky (so I can replace it with a real sky that I’ll blur and fade in) and done a lot of grass that is known as Copley Lawn. (It’s too green now, and I’ll eventually have to adjust the colors to make it look more natural.) I haven’t decided if the basepaths are tamped down grass or actually dirt. (I’m thinking the former, to be frank.)
I even began some work on Old North, downloading a reference photo so I can match the colors of the brick and the roof as best I can. Healy Hall — it’s the building that greets you on Georgetown’s website — on the left will be a challenge. As for that little building, I’ve no idea as it doesn’t seem to exist any longer, so I’ll probably make it brown.
There are some interesting details I’ve noticed, like home plate isn’t its familiar five-sided shape.
I’ll work on this as time permits. My colorization of Washington’s Swampoodle Grounds took about two weeks, and then I’ve revisited it from time to time. There’s no hurry to finish. It’s just for fun.