Written by DCist contributor Ben Schuman-Stoler.

You have probably walked by the modest Old Stone House on M Street countless times while in Georgetown, perhaps wondering when it's going to be converted for the next Starbucks. The House, actually run by the National Park Service, has seen nearly two and a half centuries on what used to be known as Bridge Street during colonial years.

The plot was purchased for one pound and ten shillings in 1764 and over the years held a clockmaker, some fifteen slaves, and a used car dealership, the last of which (while using the garden space as its parking lot) was bought out by the government in 1953, for $90,000.

Among the frenetic M Street shopping routes the Old Stone House stands as a reminder of times without designer clothes and status symbols. Stand in one of the rooms upstairs -- crouching from the low ceiling, taking in the quaint brick walls and the handmade wooden beams -- and look out a window: there you are, in the middle of the 18th century, amid artifacts of a no-car, handmade-goods lifestyle, and you can look out onto the busy intersections where cars and factory produced goods clog the streets.

Via PreservationNation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has started a campaign to save the original Tomb of the Unknowns, or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as it's commonly called, at Arlington National Cemetery.

Who would want to mess with the tomb? According to the National Trust, it's the folks who run Arlington National Cemetery themselves, as well as Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) -- perhaps one of the senate's most famous military veterans and fathers of soldiers currently serving in Iraq. The tomb has some cracks and needs repairs, but instead of fixing it, the Cemetery would like to replace it with a pristine, exact replica. UPDATE: Due to an error, we incorrectly cited Sen. Jim Webb's position on this issue. Sen. Webb is in fact opposes undecided about replacing the tomb.

The National Trust, naturally, would like to see the original tomb preserved in the same way that other monuments in D.C. are repaired, by re-grouting the cracks, and they say that experts they've consulted with agree the replacement stone is likely to crack in the same way as the current one over time. Would replacing the 48-ton marble block, originally built in 1932, be necessary again in another 75 years?