History

Amazing Photos of U Street from 1991

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photos courtesy of Laura

“Dear PoPville,

When I moved my wife and two-year-old to 13th and T, across the street from the Whitelaw Hotel (the Whitelaw’s much-faded neon sign is still in my garage, no reasonable offer refused) U Street was a trench underneath which a subway line was allegedly being built. In one of the pictures, there’s a sign listing the businesses still open, I think it’s optimistic — I think we were down to Ben’s, Leon’s shoe repair and maybe a beauty shop. The street was so desolate, even the drug dealers and the homeless didn’t hang there, and you almost felt safer there than in the populated parts of the neighborhood, even though my father was once slapped in the face by a stranger because “all white men are faggots.”

Needless to say, my parents, and my in-laws thought we were crazy, and it did take a lot of squinting and gin to see something other than continued, inexorable decline peppered with random violence and some of the ugliest hookers in the history of the world’s oldest profession.

I have to go cranky old geezer for a moment on some of the PoP complaints about today’s Columbia Heghts, Petworth, Eckington, etc. Kids these days have it so easy. ;) It’s not just that the whole hipster economy springs up much faster in gentrifying neighborhoods today than they did back then — and then, as now, I’d rather have a cool bar within walking distance than a grocery store. It’s that real change seemed so much less inevitable then than it does today — we lost money on our house when we moved to Denver for two years — and there were a lot of long “holy shit, what have we done?” nights.

But, what the hell. We bought a real house for $200k, so there’s that. And had seven rich years with a diverse cast of characters, watching a fascinating and unique transformation, of which we claim some small part. (I missed living on the edge, but when I suggested Columbia Heights when we moved back from Denver in 1999, my wife announced “we’ve done our time” and so we moved to Mt. Pleasant instead).

One day early on, a friend and I went out to take some shots of the neighborhood (it’s too bad we didn’t have Pablo and PoP’s cadre of camera talent around back then to document the decline and nascent rebirth of U Street), and a couple of days ago she stumbled across these shots and passed them along for your perusal.

Irving (nee “T”) Streete.”

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More photos after the jump. (more…)

Streets of Washington Presents – Sholl’s Cafes

By Prince Of Petworth

Streets of Washington, written by John DeFerrari, covers some of DC’s most interesting buildings and history. John is the author of Historic Restaurants of Washington, D.C.: Capital Eats, to be published this September by the History Press, Inc. John is also the author of Lost Washington DC.

The early 20th century was in many ways a golden era for casual restaurants. The rules of the business were changing rapidly, and those who could tell which way the wind was blowing had the opportunity for tremendous success. Lunchrooms had been proliferating since the 1890s, offering fast, inexpensive meals to working folk who could no longer easily go home for lunch and who didn’t feel comfortable patronizing saloons. Then Prohibition killed off the saloons altogether, and the demand only increased for simple, homestyle cooking served quickly and inexpensively. Cafeterias were one solution. The first American eatery to be called a cafeteria had opened in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and it was an instant hit. As cafeterias gained in popularity over the coming decades, they nearly always sold the same basic, no-frills “comfort” fare—breakfast dishes, sandwiches, meatloaf, salads, cakes, pies, and the like.

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Postcard from 1932 (Author’s collection).

Perhaps the best known in Washington was Sholl’s Cafeteria and Dining Room, opened by Evan A. Sholl (1899-1983) in 1928 at Connecticut Avenue and L Street NW. Sholl, the second-youngest of 13 children born to a Pottsville, Pennsylvania farmer, had started out in life with little to his name. He earned a hardscrabble living at an assortment of odd jobs—busboy, window washer, shoe factory hand—just as J. W. Marriott was doing at about the same time. At age 20 he opened his first restaurant, which quickly bankrupted him. After that he went to work for the Kresge retail chain, which transferred him to its Washington store at 7th and E Streets NW in 1927. He regained his financial footing there and, with more experience under his belt, set out on his own again with Sholl’s Cafeteria. This time it worked. (more…)

Streets of Washington Presents – The lost hilltop home of the National Bureau of Standards

By Prince Of Petworth

Streets of Washington, written by John DeFerrari, covers some of DC’s most interesting buildings and history. John is the author of Historic Restaurants of Washington, D.C.: Capital Eats, to be published this September by the History Press, Inc. John is also the author of Lost Washington DC.

One of the country’s most sophisticated scientific laboratory complexes, the National Bureau of Standards, once stood on a hill off of Connecticut Avenue at Upton Street, in the serene, semi-rural upper Northwest section of the city. Through much of the 20th century, this secluded and unassuming enclave quietly made countless important contributions to the safety and quality of the manufactured goods we take for granted today, including everything from airplane engines to kitchen crockery.

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Connecticut Avenue runs along the top of this circa 1930 view of the Bureau’s campus (Author’s collection).

The Bureau was founded in 1901, during a period of burgeoning industrial production and dramatic technological change. Telephones, automobiles, light bulbs, electrical machinery—it all needed practical, reliable standards based on methodical scientific testing. The new Bureau filled this need, greatly expanding on the mission of its predecessor, the Office of Weights and Measures, which had been set up in the Treasury Department in the early 19th century to ensure that standard measures were used when calculating customs duties on imported goods.

First housed temporarily in the old Office of Weights and Measures building on Capitol Hill, the fledgling Bureau in 1901 urgently needed space to build its own laboratory. The requirements were exacting. The laboratory had to be well outside the city proper, somewhere completely free from vibration, traffic disturbances, and the electrical interference caused by streetcar lines. It had to be solidly built, using twice the construction materials of an ordinary office building, heating and plumbing lines that were twice as complicated as an average building’s, and four or five times the usual amount of wiring. Some labs were to be fitted out with both running salt water and fresh water as well as dispensed crushed ice. Ancillary buildings would also be needed for engines, pumps, heavy machinery, and the fabrication of sensitive scientific instruments. (more…)

The DCJCC in 1926 and Today

By Prince Of Petworth

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This is very cool. PoPville flickr user NCinDC writes:

“The Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center (DCJCC) in 1926, via the Library of Congress.

The DCJCC is located at 1529 16th Street, N.W., in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Completed in 1926 to the designs of noted local architect B. Stanley Simmons, the neoclassical style building is designated as a contributing property to the Sixteenth Street Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.”

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Photo by PoPville flickr user NCinDC

Remembering – Officer Marlon Francisco Morales

By Prince Of Petworth

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Marlon Francisco Morales:

Officer Marlon Morales succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained three days earlier when he confronted a fare evader leaving the U Street-Cardoza Metro station in Washington, DC.

During the confrontation, the suspect suddenly pulled out a handgun and shot Officer Morales in the face. Officer Morales never had a chance to draw his weapon. The suspect then stole Officer Morales’ service weapon and two spare magazines of ammunition and fled the scene. Officer Morales was transported to a local hospital here he remained in critical condition for three days before succumbing to his wound.

The suspect was arrested in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania several days after the incident when he was stopped by officers for a traffic violation. After a brief struggle with officers, he was subdued and found to have Officer Morales’ service weapon and the magazines.

On May 24, 2004, the suspect was convicted on seven counts, including murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on July 30, 2004.

Officer Morales was a Gulf War veteran and had been employed with the Metro Transit Police Department for 6 months. He is survived by his wife, infant daughter, and two young sons.

Read more: http://www.odmp.org/officer/15717-officer-marlon-francisco-morales#ixzz2W6jQKm7p

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