Georgetown Time Machine: Sweet History

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is back checking out postcards from Ebay. This particular postcard is from the later half of the 20th century, but it features a sweet slice of Georgetown history.

As described on the back, what you see above is the interior of Stohlman’s Confectionary, a legendary candy and ice cream shop that once stood at 1254 Wisconsin Ave.

Of course, as the back of the card notes, this is not a photo from inside the store on Wisconsin. It’s from the Smithsonian American History Museum. The interior of the store was included in the museum’s Hall of Everyday Life. This was a large exhibit that featured scenes from history from around the country. It opened in 1957 where it actually appeared in the Natural History Museum. It moved into the American History museum when that opened in 1964.

It closed in 1980 as part of the never ending quest to keep museums (even history ones) modern. Presumably the candy shop now sits in a Smithsonian warehouse somewhere.

As for the original shop itself, that can trace its roots to 1820, when a bakery opened at this address. Eventually Frederick Stohlman opened a bakery and confectionary shop here in 1866. It remained a popular shop until it closed in 1957, the year it was transferred over to the Smithsonian.

The sweet spirit of the location carried on when Swenson’s Ice Cream shop eventually moved in:

But that was not meant to last forever. GM believes that closed in the 1980s. Oh well…

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