Then and Now: Woodward and Lothrop
14 11 2007The view you see is looking east down F Street NW in 1939. You can see all the Holiday shoppers out and the Woodward and Lothrop department store on the left. The buildings distinctive facade was designed by Henry Ives Cobb and the features of leaded glass flower designs and the Woodward & Lothrop monogram can still be seen today. It was declared a D.C. historic landmark in 1964. Don’t know about you, but this photo puts us in the Holiday spirit!
A much less busy view of what it looks like now…
It just shows how downtown DC is still not at the peak it was 80 years ago in terms of pedestrians and as a shopping destination, more cars, less people. There are just to many suburban malls pulling people out of our cities center.
i think things are just Different… if you took a pic of 7th and H street on a verizon center event night ….it would be totallly dif as well…
so yes… some of the traditional shopping fervor is gone…. but that doesnt mean downtown isnt a thriving pedestrian district… just my two cents…
xoxo
I agree with suicide blond,
There are differences, of course, but I don’t think these two photos capture the full essence then or now. The first looks like a morning rush hour / workers enroute. I’ve been on that stretch at 8:45 am on a weekday, and there is a far bit more activity than in the example photo above. Yes, there are a lot of cars these days. But there is a heck of a lot of sidewalk traffic as well. And the subway is underground, so you’re not going to see all the transit commuters, just the buses - which are full that time of morning.
I do agree with your basic premise though. The shopping must have been incredible downtown back then, and it still lags now (though making a comeback). I worked at the city museum during its brief existence, and more than once older folks came in and just raved at how incredible it was downtown in the 40s and 50s. One woman told me it was more beautiful than Manhattan back then, as far as the street life, architecture, and just the energy level.
Another time an African-American woman explained that downtown was incredible, but she also added that U Street was amazing - during the day and especially in the evenings when the clubs were going strong.
I’m not big on fantasies of time travel, but hearing them talk made me wish I could just go back and experience what DC must have felt like then, just as far as the street life. Yes, I know there were many warts - as there are today as well - but I bet it was a neat place to be.
Yeah I agree… but look at the picture from 1939 there are not any areas that look like that in DC except right after games let out at the Verizon center. Also that’s not necessarily a bad thing!
Anyways, it just makes me nostalgic for chirstmas time, shopping, in the city, I guess I will just have to go to Georgetown to get that type of atmosphere (ie crowded sidewalks)!
Having worked for Woodies for many years until it’s demise, you’re all missing the point. It’s not about downtown DC alone, it’s about our country and how cutthroat corporate America is. Woodies was a chain with integrity, and offered choices that the consumer wanted, not 6000 red sweaters that Macy’s and other stores buy because they got a bargain. There is nowhere people can go anymore to find a variety, and maybe something just a tad special.
I mourn the loss of the era when consumers drove business, not the other way around. We took stores like Woodies and flushed them away, for the sake of big business and profit margins. What a shame…..
My Trip Down My Memory Lane.
My aunt and my eventual mom (I wasn’t born until 1950) both worked at Woodies. It was in the early 40’s. My aunt worked in the cosmetics department located inside the entrance in the picture, down some steps and about 30-40 feet inside on the main sales floor. My mom worked in the ladies department with clothes, suits jackets for women. They were only making about $.17 per hour. At lunch, they would go to the coffee shop/lunch counter and order a pot of boiling water. Then, pour ketchup in a cup with the boiling water to make tomato soup.
At Christmas in 1955 (I was 5 then), I would visit Woodies toy department to look at the Lionel “O’ Gauge trains. Woodies had a large Lionel layout there for Christmas with a lot of the new rolling stock being pulled by steam locomotives or the new Diesels. The Santa Fe “War bonnet” paint scheme was the #1 locomotive of the day. My dad would be with me and see which one or two cars I liked the most and maybe a couple of accessories. Then I would sit on Santa’s knee and tell him what trains I wanted. At Christmas, Santa would bring me those Lionel items. “” HOW DID HE KNOW “” I always wondered how he would remember.
We would walk outside the main entrance of Woodies and the sky would be dark and overcast and a deep gray. At 1-2 PM, it was almost dark with the sun now in the Southern sky and the thick snow clouds above. It as very cold, cold enough where you could see your breath. Sometimes, well, most times it was snowing and the Christmas lights in the windows would reflect off the smooth coat of snow on top of everything. The window sills, street lamps, parked taxis and even the street cars. It was a Christmas wonderland downtown.
At night, there were just the street lights as seen in the 1939 picture. They were incandescent bulbs and threw a omni-directional light. No high powered super bright lights beaming to the ground like today, but a soft light illuminating the sidewalks enough to see your way. Tinsel would be strewn in the windows on the outside. People were better then and wouldn’t rip it down like the idiots today. Outdoor lights were also strung on the buildings and in the windows. With a covering of snow on the sidewalk where people hadn’t walks, it was like a multi-colors painting of light, sparkling on each and every snowflake on the ground.
People rode the street cars a lot then, (1955). You would see people with the heavy paper shopping bags with the Woodies Signature logo and the words Woodward & Lothrop printed on them. Shoplifting was a sin then and trust prevailed. You were given a shopping bag if you wanted one as you entered Woodies to shop. You’d put you items in the shopping bag after paying for them Back then, you paid for your items in the department where you bought them, not in a checkout line. They had the vacuum tubes running through the entire building. This was for the clerks to get change for large bills, such as a $20.00 bill, that was a big bill back then. They would put the tubular carrier in the vacuum pipe and swoosh! Off it went to some hidden location in the store. After 2-3 minutes, you heard the air rushing out of the tube, a loud thud and there was the carrier back from it’s mystical trip to a unknown place in the store.
We lived in Arlington, and we left Washington in 1956 to live in Germany as my dad was CIA. We returned to Arlington in 1958, moved to Coral Gables Fl. And never went back to D.C. I remember my childhood days pretty well at Woodies and am saddened that they closed in 1995. Sure wish I had stopped there when my wife and I passed through D.C. On the beltway in 1983, but ……..
I worked for Woodward & Lothrop for 27 years. It started out as just a part-time job in Annapolis to make ends meet as a single girl and my first apartment. After 8 years of working two jobs and hating my full-time office job at insurance company I went on with a career at Woodies. I worked in 6 different stores, including about 8 years in Metro Center as a department mgr and assistant buyer. I also managed the Pentagon Store for 14 months before it was closed in 1994. Those years at Woodies were the best of my life. I made life long friends at Woodies. Working for Woodies wasn’t a JOB or WORK. You enjoyed going to work everyday and meeting with new challenged each day. I worked for Hecht’s afterwards and costomers would say to me “You use to work for Woodies, I miss that store.” And I would smile and say “Not half as much as I do”.
After some 45 years, my memory fails me. I recall there being a giant kitchen chair outside of a major department store. I was fascinated by this chair everytime we drove by it.
The problem I have & what sticks in my memory is that this store was either Woodward & Lothrop, Hahn’s or Hechts.
Does anyone remember this huge chair being in Washington ?
We lived in Washington, D.C. until 1964, when we moved to California. Previously, we lived in Pittsburgh, Pa.
The outflux to the suburbs was not the real problem for downtown Washington, DC. The riots that occurred in the 1960s are what put the nail in downtown’s coffin. At one time there were 52 movie theatres in the city. Now there is only 1. The white population moved out of the city in droves after the riots and the downtown never recovered. Before the riots my family attended many movies downtown, on Georgia Avenue and near Columbia Circle. Zero Mostel appeared in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum in a theatre on Pennsylvania Ave. The building of the FBI building destroyed a number of businesses including the city’s burlesque theatres and did not help business survive. Even the Greyhound bus station located several blocks away eventually closed.
@ George Senda: The giant chair is in Anacostia It was an award by Bassett Furniture Co. to the DC-based Curtis Furniture Co., which was directly across the street from the chair. The original chair was made of mahogany, and when it was found to be rotting a few years ago, was replaced by a duplicate made of aluminum.
I remember going into one of the entrances to Woodward & Lothrop–I believe it was the F Street entrance, but my memory is hazy. Upon entering the doors, you were faced with a wall directly in front of you over the stairs leading down. Arriving at the stairs, you could at first only see a tiny portion of the main selling floor. But as you descended, the wall began to pass over your head, slowly revealing the entire floor up to the ceiling. It was a brilliant and breathtaking architectural trick that never failed to work it’s magic on me. You didn’t get that effect from the other entrances–you saw the whole floor the instant you opened the door.
It was sad when Garfinkel’s went out of business. Hecht’s, too, later on. But when Woodies went out, it was a tragedy. Welcome to the conglomeratizing of America.
When I was a kid in the 1950’s, my cousin and I would go downtown to Woodies for a special candy made at the store. The name of the candy and the candy store was “Velatice” or something similar. I was wondering if anyone remembers the name and if the candy is made anywhere in the country. The last time I was in DC the store as well as the candy store was gone. Too bad, there are no such stores anymore.
I worked for Woodies for several years in the Security Dept as Security Supervisor. I remember so many faces but not names. I have always wondered what happen to some of my many friends. I remember Ben Armstrong, Kevin Kidwell, Martha Crist, Al Hendricks, Scottie (at the employee’s doors), there were so many. If you read this and would like to give info please do so at deepwater at zoominternet dot net. Would love to hear from you.