Retail Royalty in Downtown DC: Garfinckel's Department Store

While department stores had originated in fashion-forward cities like Paris, the United States did not lag far behind in adapting and creating their own retail hubs across the country. In DC, this commercial hub sprouted around 7th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, but quickly expanded because of new stores opening and expanding their physical footprint within downtown. Among these new stores, Julius Garfinckel saw an opportunity: he planned to bring Washingtonians a luxurious, high-class shopping experience like no other.

First opening in 1905 at 1226 F Street NW, Garfinckel (original spelling: Garfinckle) was no stranger to retail, and had worked in the industry for years prior to opening his own store. Even with the small store he originally opened, the store was an instant success, with shoppers excited to see the luxury goods that Garfinckel brought to the DC market. With his upper-class customer base continually expanding and anxious for new products, the store quickly moved to accommodate the larger inventory.

By 1928, Garfinckel’s had become one of the city’s largest department stores, with clientele ranging from upper-class families to congressmen and presidents. The constant attention paid to bringing new fashions straight from Europe to the United States gave Garfincfkel’s a unique edge against their competition, but the store also remained the only large luxury retailer in the area.

Garfinckel also employed stiff business practices; if Garfinckel found any other store carrying the same merchandise as him, he would quickly have employees dispose of it to maintain their level of exclusivity.

In its final iteration, Garfinckel’s occupied a newly-constructed building at the corner of 14th and F streets NW (600 14th Street NW). Designed by the New York architect firm Starrett & Van Veck, the Stripped Classical style building matched the high-end aesthetic that Garfinckel’s had curated over the previous decades. By the time of its completion in 1929, department store architecture and design had become a valuable subfield, and the New York architects specialized in creating beautiful department stores. The store also stood out against others in the area because of its unified design.

With the exclusive and high-end experience that Garfinckel’s offered, however, came multiple limitations for people of color and ethnic communities. Garfinckel refused to hire or service people of color and Jewish people, with Garfinckel even changing the spelling of his name to “remove” himself from any connection to the Jewish community. Also, the store only catered to upper-class customers because of its merchandise, excluding anyone who could not afford the store’s products.

At their height, Garfinckel’s operated eight stores throughout the metropolitan area. Yet they would fall victim to the same fate as other department stores throughout DC and the country. After a series of mergers and acquisitions, Garfinckel’s had lost its local ownership. The building on 14th Street would remain unoccupied for a number of years after the store’s full closure in 1990, but eventually the space became a mixed use office and retail building.

Today, you can still see the iconic building in much the same shape, marking passed time with little change. This site was added to the DC Inventory in February 1988 and listed on the National Register in April 1995.

Want to learn more about Department Stores in Downtown DC? Check out DC Historic Sites's "Finding Style in DC" digital tour here: https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/tours/show/66