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Washington, D.C. » Southeast of the Anacostia River » F. W. Woolworth Co. Store

F. W. Woolworth Co. Store

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1930s, unknown. 1231 Good Hope Rd. SE
  • F. W. Woolworth Co. Store (Franz Jantzen)
  • F. W. Woolworth Co. Store (Franz Jantzen)
  • F. W. Woolworth Co. Store (Franz Jantzen)

This Woolworth's is the best preserved of all of Washington's five-and-ten-cent stores, a rapidly disappearing typology. Miraculously, it retains its shiny red metal frieze with original gold lettering and logo. The rectilinear glass storefront was designed to display merchandise as openly as possible (while keeping it under cover) in order to entice shoppers into the interior. Angled glass walls lead to two deeply set glass doors, intended to allow easy access to the shopping area or the soda fountain. Even the Rococo pressed-tin ceiling and vaguely classical wall paneling and window frames survive. Sleek, slick, and cheap in its Art Deco style, it is a remnant of another era now most often found in small-town America.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

House
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Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
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Citation

Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee, "F. W. Woolworth Co. Store", [Washington, District of Columbia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DC-01-SE02.

Print Source

Buildings of the District of Columbia, Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 273-274.

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