Now and a Long Time Ago: M and Potomac

This week on Now and Long Time Ago, GM swings on by M St. Specifically he’s checking out 3251 M St.

These days, this small shop is being converted from Shoe Gallery to a Sunglass Hut. But in 1966, when the old shot was taken, this address housed the Coniglio Barber Shop.

Frank Coniglio moved to DC from Palermo, Sicily, in 1911. He opened a barber shop at 3251 M St. in 1913. He ran the shop until he died in 1948. His son Phillip, who started working in the shop in his teens, took over the shop after his father’s death. He then ran the shop until his own death in 1969.

Here’s another photo from the Library of Congress from inside the shop:

You can practically smell the Barbasol.

James Randolph took over the shop until he closed the shop in 1970 after the building was sold.

Next door appears to have been a liquor store called Lew’s Shoppe.