Featured Historic Districts
      Introduction
      Logan Circle
      Residential Architecture
      Religious Architecture
      Public Architecture
      Commercial Architecture
      Residents
      Greater 14th St. Area Today
      Logan Circle Comm. Assoc.
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   Frequently Asked Questions

Commercial Architecture

Small commercial concerns developed to serve the growing community from the south end of Fourteenth Street around old downtown to its north border at Florida Avenue. Between the 1870s and 1880s, the number and variety of commercial enterprises serving the community multiplied. Grocers; dealers of dry goods, fancy goods and coal; carpenters; druggists; confectioners; retailers; undertakers; tin smiths; and boot and shoe makers competed for business along the Fourteenth Street corridor.

© Library of Congress

As the automobile rose in importance and popularity, Fourteenth Street became a center of automotive activity in Washington, D.C. The machine age and its new form of transportation required new structures for the storage and display of automobiles. In 1898, Rudolph Jose opened the first car sales shop at 1614 Fourteenth Street, NW, where he distributed the Kensington Electric Car. Many Victorian residential and commercial buildings were razed in the first decade of the century to make room for more prominent garages and automobile showrooms. The appearance of these showrooms on either side of the street led to the adoption of Fourteenth Street's nickname: "Automobile Row."

Perpendicular to and behind the elegantly lined Fourteenth Street, side thoroughfares developed into automobile service districts. Many repair stations and shops arose on Church Street, Johnson Avenue, and P Street. These structures are typically brick, multistoried, and industrial in appearance.

As a result of Fourteenth Street's transformation from an important nineteenth century streetcar line to Automobile Row, the physical character of the artery is defined by the cohabitation of small Victorian commercial buildings with larger twentieth century structures. The different building forms illustrate the change in transportation methods, not only in Washington, but nationwide.