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Finding Style in DC: Navigating DC’s Shopping Scene - Marketing and Advertising: Retailers employed a wide variety of marketing tactics to entice customers inside.
Stores may have boasted new, exciting, and exclusive products, but how did they attract customers to come through their doors? What made their store more special or better than their competitors? The…
Finding Style in DC: Navigating DC’s Shopping Scene - Suburban Movement: Multiple factors resulted in the major shift toward suburban residential development.
Because of DC’s unique status as the nation’s capital, residential development ebbed and flowed depending on a number of factors. One major factor included the need for federal jobs, which expanded…
Finding Style in DC: Navigating DC’s Shopping Scene - Cleveland Park Park n’ Shop: The building’s design was a template for future shopping center construction.
Recognized as the first shopping center in DC and one of the first in the region, the Cleveland Park Park n’ Shop (now named Sam’s Park n’ Shop) exemplifies the city’s shopping trends, architecture,…
Finding Style in DC: Navigating DC’s Shopping Scene - Lord and Taylor, Chevy Chase Branch Store: The New York-based store brought new styles to Washington, DC.
Samuel Lord and George Washington Taylor are credited with establishing one of the first department stores in the nation, opening their first store in 1825 in Manhattan. Their quick success in New…
Finding Style in DC: Navigating DC’s Shopping Scene - Kann's Department Store: The building’s proposed demolition was highly contested and ended with tragedy.
While the business originated in Baltimore in the 1860s, where the Kanns had settled after immigrating to the United States from Germany, Solomon Kann (with his three sons, Louis, Simon, and Sigmund)…
Finding Style in DC: Navigating DC’s Shopping Scene - Lansburgh’s: This store expanded from a small market stall into a major downtown department store.
Immigrating to Baltimore in 1860, the Lansburgh brothers, Gustave, Mark, and James, all contributed to the future success of what would become one of DC’s oldest dry goods retailers. First, however,…
Finding Style in DC: Navigating DC’s Shopping Scene - Hecht Company (Hecht's): The department store offered budget-friendly options to city shoppers.
The Hecht family, immigrating from Germany to the United States in the 1860s, found immediate success in the retail industry. The first family member, Simeon Hecht, arrived in Baltimore to open a…
Finding Style in DC: Navigating DC’s Shopping Scene - Morton’s Department Store: Morton’s offered their services to all DC residents regardless of race.
A career in law would feel challenging enough for most, but not for Mortimer Lebowitz. After attending law school for two years, he did not feel as excited by it as he thought he should. His father, a…
Smothers Elementary School: This school, named for Henry Smothers, has welcomed students since the 1920s.
As DC’s urban landscape grew to accommodate its growing population, so did its young population of school-aged children. While schoolhouses existed throughout the city for these children, they were…
Dumbarton Oaks: The house's owners transformed the site into a premier research facility.
Purchased in 1920 by Mildred Barnes Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss, Dumbarton Oaks has expanded and transformed over time from a private home to a key research center within Washington, DC. The house…