Recollections about growing up in the Columbia Heights section of Washington, D.C., 1939

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Recollections about growing up in the Columbia Heights section of Washington, D.C., 1939 - 1950

Bill Donaldson, Raleigh, NC

William Donaldson was born in December 1931 and lived in Columbia Heights from then until August 1955. He received a Ph.D.in nutrition (animals) from the U. of Maryland in 1957 and taught and conducted research at the U. of Rhode Island (57-62) and North Carolina State University (62-present). Mr. Donaldson graduated from Central High School in June of 1949.

Part 1

When I was born (December, 1931), my parents were living in the Portner Apartments located at or near 16th and U Streets N.W. My first memories are of an apartment at 1460 Euclid Street, N.W. I was about 4 years old, and I remember looking out the bedroom window at the Netherlands Embassy which was across the alley at 15th and Euclid (SE corner). On the SW corner was the northern-most 15th Street entrance to Meridian Hill Park. Diagonal from the embassy was a large vacant lot. Just after World War II, a residence apartment for single women was built on that lot between 15th and 16th. By then I was living several blocks away and was attending Central High School. A school buddy was the lifeguard at the swimming pool in the basement of the women's residence. I spent many hours swimming and girl watching in that pool. As I remember, the fourth corner (also a vacant lot) eventually became apartments, but I do not know when. The last time I drove through the neighborhood (about 5 years ago), the apartment house that I lived in (1460 Euclid) was still standing.

In September, 1937, I began first grade at St. Paul's Academy, a Catholic school, located on V Street N.W. between 14th and 15th. Soon after starting school, my parents received notice that the apartment house in which we lived was being renovated to make smaller apartments. And so, we moved to an apartment at the corner of 18th and Columbia Road (what is now called Adams-Morgan, a name I had never heard until a few years ago). The apartment was over a People's Drug Store (now CVS?) and across 18th Street from the Ambassador Theater. As soon as the weather turned cold, we had to move again because the heating system did not work. The move was back to Columbia Heights to an apartment at 2715 14th Street (which may still be standing) between Girard and Fairmont. They too, remodeled after a few years, and we moved across the street to the Savoy Apartments at 2804 14th. My parents were still living there when I was finished college and married. They moved to Takoma Park in 1958 . My wife and I used to visit them in the Savoy Apartments before they moved away from the neighborhood.

Piggly Wiggly

I trudged down 14th Street hill from Girard Street to V Street every school day for eight years. The trip either started on the west side of 14th or I had crossed over to the west side at Fairmont. I can still remember much of the character of the buildings that lined the street, but the recollections of the west side are more detailed than those of the east side. Starting at 2804 and heading south, there was a barbershop that was reached by a open-air stairs down to the basement level. This was the basement of the Columbia apartments which had their main entrances around the corner on Girard. The Columbia and Savoy apartments were both six stories high. The Savoy had a large lobby furnished with sofas, chairs and tables. The ceilings of the first floor were twelve feet high. On the corner of Girard was a saloon (tavern, grill, whatever) called Louies and owned by two Greek brothers. Across Girard was Judd's drugstore, a small privately-owned pharmacy with a soda fountain. N ext came a series of store front shops and stores. Steelman's liquor store, then two side by side grocery stores. The names of the stores changed several times, and so I don't remember which was who. But, I do remember the names: Piggly Wiggly (which I think became Sanitary and later, Safeway) and Acme (later A&P ?). Next a small shop with an apartment on the second floor. Next came a lawn that was part of the apartment house that faced Fairmont Street.

Across Fairmont on the corner was a small restaurant called Gregory's, it too was owned by a Greek family. More store front shops were next--a bakery called Cris's and operated by another Greek who we all called Mr. Cris. His chocolate eclairs were the best I have ever eaten, but the donuts were greasy. There was a Chinese laundry and a few other shops in that block before you came to an eight to ten foot-high retaining wall made of large blackish stones. The wall continued around Euclid Street and on top of the ground which the wall supported, set back from the streets, was a Jewish Synagogue (Temple?).

Between Euclid and Clifton were a series of two story apartments. Each was considerably uphill from the level of 14th and there were stairways up to each of them. There were several of them in the block. The sides of the homes on Clifton bordered 14th. There then came a large apartment house with shops on the ground level at the corner of 14th and Chapin. Across Chapin on the corner was a large brownstone building in which was located Chambers' Funeral home. The rest of the way down that long block to Belmont were store front shops with single story apartments above. The block between Belmont and Florida Avenue is a short one and it was taken up by a single building. It had store windows at the Florida Avenue corner but the building was vacant for as long as I could remember.

Exterior, Scholls Cafeteria

Interior, Scholls Cafeteria

Across Florida was another store that would compare to today's convenience store. It had a penny candy counter which I can remember pressing my nose against while trying to decide how to spend my penny. There were more small shops as you continued down W Street. Across W on the corner was a Texaco gas station. Again, more store fronts down to V Street. One of them was a motorcycle shop which sold and repaired Harleys. Gypsy fortune-tellers took up residence in another of the shops in that block, and the nuns at St. Paul's warned us to keep our distance--they never told us why. Most of the shop windows in that block had posters in them that advertised either the boxing or wrestling matches at Turner's Arena (near the northeast corner of 14th and W) or the strip shows at the Gaiety Theater downtown.

I turned right on V Street to go to school. The entire south side of V between 14th and 15th consisted of row houses. Store fronts with an upstairs apartment lined the north side of V to the alley. On the other side of the alley was the red brick convent of the nuns who taught at St. Paul's. They were Holy Cross sisters. Next came a chapel and attached convent for a group of contemplative nuns, a few of whom we caught brief glimpses of. They spent their entire lives praying inside that convent. Next came the school, St. Paul's Academy. It was two stories high with a basement as well--and was constructed of white stone (granite?). Next came the rectory (house where the priests lived) and then the church at the corner of 15th. As of five years ago, all of these buildings were there, and probably are still standing. The church steeples were missing the twin spires from my childhood.

If you are still with me, I'll describe the east side of 14th, but in less detail because I remember less of it. On the north side W, about 100 feet east of 14th was Turner's Arena. It was the site of the wrestling and boxing matches described in the posters in the store windows. Just north of Florida Avenue was a large concrete structure that resembled a factory and which housed a Chevrolet dealership. Then came some store fronts and next came apartments from just south of Clifton up to Euclid Street. Store fronts occupied the next block up to Fairmont. Next came a tall red brick apartment house with a concrete facade. One of the stores at street level was a beauty salon called "Pat, your hairdresser". Next to this apartment was the one in which I lived for a time, and then a corner apartment with the entrance on Girard. Our apartment was in the back (east side) of the building and had a porch overlooking a grassy backyard. There was a large walnut tree in the yard.

More store fronts lined 14th between Girard and Harvard. One of them was a High's dairy store that sold ice cream cones scooped with a flat paddle instead of the usual melon ball scoop. You got three scoops for ten cents. Across Harvard on the corner was Hines' Funeral Home and then more store fronts all the way up to Park Road. Just south of Irving Street was another large apartment house with a Scholl's Cafeteria on the ground floor. There were windows in the cafeteria which looked out on 14th. One of our amusements as young kids (yard apes) was to stand in front of those windows and watch the patrons eat. A large hardware store was located between Irving and Kenyon. There was a Gulf service station on the south corner of Kenyon. The Tivoli Theater charged five cents at matinees for children under twelve. The price went up to ten cents sometime during WWII. My mother would send me to the then equivalent of a convenience store at 14th and Harvard to buy a loaf of br ead and a quart of milk. She would give me twenty-five cent and I would come home with the bread and milk and change.

Riggs Bank

Across 14th Street from the Tivoli was Riggs National Bank. If you crossed Park Road headed south, there was a Peoples' Drug on the corner. There were small shops and stores in that whole block down to Irving. Just south of Park Road was a cavernous building that at one time was a streetcar barn. The ground floor was a huge market called the Arcade Market. It housed numerous stalls which sold fruits, vegetables, meats, fresh seafood, poultry, cheese and flowers. The floors were concrete and liberally sprinkled with sawdust. Off to one side was a stairwell which led to a huge second floor area with a Quonset Hut type ceiling that must have been fifty or sixty feet high. In that area were a pool room and at least fifty bowling lanes. About half of the lanes were set up for tenpins (large balls with finger holes) and the rest for duckpins (balls the size of a small cantaloupe and pins of a size to match). Among the shops and stores, as you progressed down 14th tow ard Irving, were three 5&10 cent stores: Murphys, Kresges and Woolworths. On the northwest corner of 14th and Irving was a Lerner's store that was built in the late '40's.

The next block was more small shops and in the middle was the Savoy Theater which seated probably only one-third the people that the Tivoli seated. On Friday nights, cowboy movies were featured, including such stars as Hop-along Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Red Ryder and many others. Also on the bill would be a comedy, a cartoon and a serial. The serials lasted for 12 to 14 weekly episodes and were based on characters such as Flash Gordon, Charlie Chan, Fu Man-Chu and Sgt. Preston of the Mounties. Next to the Savoy and bordering on the alley that opened to 14th was a hamburger joint called the White Coffee Pot. On the corner at Columbia Road was a Whelan's Drug store and across on the other corner was another Peoples Drugs. Again, more shops toward Harvard. These included a barroom, Heller's Bakery and a flower shop on the corner. Across Harvard was Jones' Bar and Grill. Then more shops including a Chinese Laundry and a Penny Arcade (pinball machines) before arriving back at 2804 where this description started.

Interior, Peoples Drug Store

All of the cross streets on 14th consisted mainly of row houses or small apartments. Occasionally there would be a church, and the phone company had a building on Columbia Road between 14th and 15th. There were a few stores on Irving toward 15th and a bus line ran on Irving. The streetcars on 14th ran between a turnaround at 14th and Kennedy or a car barn at 14th and Decatur at the northern end---and the Bureau of Engraving or the Navy Yard at the other. There were raised car stop platforms on each side of 14th at every other block--Girard, Euclid, Chapin etc. The stops at one time were painted on the street but the platforms were put in the late 30's. The streetcars were all of the third rail design--no overhead wires. The streetcars were of the old design with a motorman and conductor. They had very hard seats covered with a straw-like, slippery material. I was fairly young when the Capital Transit Co. began to replace the old cars with the newer, quieter ones with o nly one transit person (the driver).

Telephone Exchange

Although I always went to school using 14th Street, I usually came home via 15th and/or Meridian Hill Park. I'll describe my memories of this area in Part 2.

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