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Lift Every Voice
Georgia Ave./Pleasant Plains Heritage Trail
2 Seventh and T
Back in the day, Seventh and T was the place to go for a good time. Once the Howard Theatre opened at 620 T Street in 1910, restaurants, nightclubs, and businesses serving the diverse African American communities followed. As Marita Golden wrote in Long Distance Life, "Seventh Street, dressed in neon, with the hungry perfume of passion, hummed and whistled and scatted its way into the night."
Seventh Street inspired. DC native Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington based his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag," on the nearby Poodle Dog Café, where he worked after school as a soda jerk around 1915. In the 1960s, under-aged fan and neighbor Reggie Kelly "delighted in hanging outside the doors" of Mike's New Breed across Seventh north of T Street "listening to the house bands."
Back in 1938, at 1836 Seventh, Max Silverman started what became the Waxie Maxie's chain of 28 record stores. Fans of Sarah Vaughan, Buddy Rich, and rising local black artists flocked to Silverman's jam sessions and live radio broadcasts held in the storefront's window, known as the goldfish bowl. The teen-aged Ahmet Ertegun, son of Turkey's ambassador to Washington, was a frequent customer. Inspired by the R&B of Seventh and T, Ertegun found Atlantic Records in 1947, eventually recording DC's Clovers, as well as Ray Charles, the Rolling Stones, and many others.
To your right is the Southern Aid Society Building and Dunbar movie house, which opened in 1921. African American architect Isaiah T. Hatton designed the building, and Lewis Giles, Sr., just staring a long career as a Washington architect, was chief draftsman. |