The Tea Room, Woodward & Lothrop Washington D.C. 1937

Once one of Washington DC’s favorite department stores, Woodward and Lothrop was located on the F Street shopping corridor, affectionately nicknamed Woodies.

Department stores typically had tearooms as a way of encouraging shoppers to stay longer, and you will see from this 1937 menu that veritable feasts were on offer for ‘luncheons.’

From entrees of crab or lamb to salads, sandwiches and cold plates, the appetites of hungry shoppers were lavishly catered for.

Woodies was the Capital’s first department store, founded by former shop clerks Samuel Walter Woodward (1848-1917) and Alvin Mason Lothrop (1847-1912) in 1887. The businessmen had earlier established dry goods stores in Massachusetts.

Among the early innovations they pioneered were horse-drawn delivery vans that became a familiar sight on the city’s residential streets.

 In-built entertainment was another feature of Woodies. A show in 1900 featured works by Raphael, Titian, Van Dyke, and Rembrandt, on loan from the British National Gallery. In 1913, a motion-picture theater was installed.

The biggest attraction of all was the department store’s Christmas window displays, done in friendly rivalry with other downtown department stores such as Kann’s, Hecht’s and Lansburgh’s.

Woodies expanded in the 1950s and 1960s, opening more branches in the vast shopping malls built to accommodate families who had moved to suburbia post WWII but began to face competition from emerging stores like Saks and Neiman Marcus.

The chain filed for bankruptcy in January 1994 and completed the liquidation process in 1995, with many of the stores being sold to J.C. Penney.

Located at 1025 F Street NW, the beautiful Romanesque-Revival building that once housed Woodies still stands today and is a Washington D.C. historic landmark. The renovated building now houses a mix of retail and office space, including a Barnes & Noble bookshop.

Maps were a common feature on menus in the 1930s and ‘40s and this is a lovely one showing many of the Capital’s landmarks – including Woodies.