A really neat article from a few years ago that begins with a search for a long-lost sign and ends with a shoebox history of the struggle between one smelly industry and residents (and everyone else) in Georgetown. The Hopfenmaier rendering plant existed at 3300 K St., NW on the waterfront for nearly 100 years, until finally being ousted by fed-up residents and politicians. The rendering process takes leftover animal parts and oils used in food prep and renders them into lubricants, fuels and other uses. It’s an aged process (still in use today) but one that results in a massively horrible odor and residue. I have been told by first-hand accounts that the Whitehurst Fwy. (erected in 1948) had a coating of sooty grease and an odor that on a hot day, many years after the plant had shut down, would be unbearable. I can only imagine. Enjoy!