Department stores, in addition to offering products and merchandise, excited customers because they created an environment of abundance, ease, and luxury that they might not have had access to beyond the store. Many shoppers ventured downtown to…

Stores may have boasted new, exciting, and exclusive products, but how did they attract customers to come through their doors? What made their store more special or better than their competitors? The answer lies in how they marketed and advertised…

Because of DC’s unique status as the nation’s capital, residential development ebbed and flowed depending on a number of factors. One major factor  included the need for federal jobs, which expanded greatly during times of war, and stagnated during…

Samuel Lord and George Washington Taylor are credited with establishing one of the first department stores in the nation, opening their first store in 1825 in Manhattan. Their quick success in New York City throughout the mid-19th century allowed…

While the business originated in Baltimore in the 1860s, where the Kanns had settled after immigrating to the United States from Germany, Solomon Kann (with his three sons, Louis, Simon, and Sigmund) found new opportunities in the nation’s capital.…

Immigrating to Baltimore in 1860, the Lansburgh brothers, Gustave, Mark, and James, all contributed to the future success of what would become one of DC’s oldest dry goods retailers. First, however, Gustave Lansburgh began his business journey as a…

The Hecht family, immigrating from Germany to the United States in the 1860s, found immediate success in the retail industry. The first family member, Simeon Hecht, arrived in Baltimore to open a furniture store in the city, and after his initial…

A career in law would feel challenging enough for most, but not for Mortimer Lebowitz. After attending law school for two years, he did not feel as excited by it as he thought he should. His father, a retailer in New York City, offered him an…