Doug Robinson and Mia at 1331 14th Street, NW photos courtesy Drew Mitchell
The following was written by the building’s new owners, Drew Mitchell:
“Twenty years ago, my late husband, Bill Fischer, and I bought the “Jensen’s Brake Service” building at 1333 14th Street NW from Lee and Phyllis Jensen. They entrusted us to restore their large, mixed-use building so that we could have a home for my branding company, Fathom Creative, an event venue called Fathom Gallery, and our personal residence on the top. (Later, we invited Slipstream Coffee to utilize the front retail space, which as you know, moved up the street this past Fall). We made the facade come to life and we carefully incorporated a lot of the brake shop artifacts into the building’s interior. Our efforts earned a spread in the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s magazine, and much more importantly, high fives from Lee and Phyllis.
Our next-door neighbor was Monarch Novelties, a wholesale carnival supply store owned by another longstanding DC family, the Robinsons. They had 11 children, (more…)
