Existing comment:
Midcity at the Crossroads
Shaw Heritage Trail
17 The Place to Shop
When Northern Liberty Market opened on Mount Vernon Square in 1846, small businesses soon followed. By 1900 they catered to everyday needs and formed a bargain district in comparison to downtown's fancy department stores.
Many stored were owned by immigrant families who lived upstairs. It was not unusual to find side-by-side an Irish funeral home, a Chinese restaurant, a German hardware store, a Jewish delicatessen, and an Irish saloon. In the 1920s, Henrietta Zaltrow's father ran a small grocery next to a Chinese laundry. "My father used to borrow money from them all the time," she recalled. Shopkeepers frequently extended credit and more to their clientele.
The commercial section here and closer to F Street attracted so many Jewish business people that by 1900 three synagogues -- Washington Hebrew, Adas Israel, and Ohev Sholom -- were located just south of Mount Vernon Square.
German immigrants Henry and Charlotte Boegeholz opened their saloon and restaurant at 1139 Seventh (on the next block to your right) around 1874. By 1900 Census figures counted five adults, six children, and a servant, all living in the two upper floors. In 1911 KC Braun retired as head butler of the German Embassy and bought the business.
The descendants of hardware store founder Henry Ruppert have operated businesses continuously on this block of Seventh Street since 1885. The hardware store closed in 1987, a casualty of Metro construction and changes in hardware retailing.
Most of these blocks were devastated in the riots of 1968. They remained a sad reminder for nearly a decade until nearby churches collaborated with the federal government to build the apartments you see today. |