Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Washington, D.C., circa 1901. "View of F Street N.W., north side between 12th & 13th, showing various businesses." 5x7 inch glass negative, D.C. Street Survey Collection. View full size.
And periods were used indiscriminately.
From the modern point of view, what is the most striking about the way the bicycles are parked is that not one of them appears to be locked to anything.
Reeves was on F Street well into the 1980s, closed for a bit and then reopened on G Street for a while. They were famous for their strawberry pie.
This photo captures a turning point in one of the longest-living restaurants in the District. What began around 1887 as a grocery store at 1209 F Street N.W. became Reeves in the late nineteenth century when Sewell Reeves took ownership. According to a history of District restaurants, "by 1902 he had enlarged the building with the bakery and candy departments occupying the second and third floors and the lunch counter lengthened to seat 150."
Known for that lunch counter, it would remain in place until the 1980s, reopening after a 1984 fire, until it was displaced from F to G Streets by redevelopment of this site.
I always find it entertaining, in fin de siècle photos, to see bicycles parked below the curb, as if they were either horses or motor vehicles, though this convention is not strictly observed here. I will also observe, with considerable amusement, that the woman parking her bike in front of the shoe store wasn't buying the hype about "bicycle face".
[They're parked they way they are (against curbs, lampposts, etc.) because there's no bike rack and they don't have kickstands. - Dave]
Miss Gulch?
How great to see Reeves being built. It remained, until at least the 1960s, a favorite of DC shoppers. I still remember my awe at how fast the restaurant would serve your order, seeming only seconds after it was taken by the server.
On the far right of the photo, to the right of the Schneider display window with the electrical fans, I see a tall vertical display of nine white squares with black figures on them. What in the world is that?
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5