This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I’m dipping back into the DC Historical Society’s archive. This particular shot shows the south side of the M and Thomas Jefferson intersection. It’s from 1959.
Where now stands the Barnes and Noble, once a Ford car dealership once stood. In fact, the whole shape of the building, with its huge open spaces and big windows, reflects that the building was purpose-built to sell cars. It was constructed in 1929 as the location of the first Ford dealership in DC. For many years it was called Parkway Ford.
Later it was Parkway Dodge before closing up in the late 60s. In 1970 it was converted to a three-screen movie theater, the Cerebus (get it?). That remained until 1993. After several years of renovations, Barnes and Noble open in 1995. They remained until closing in 2011. The Nike Store moved in in 2012 and remained for about ten years before Barnes and Noble moved back in in 2024.
So remarkably this large building has housed just four different businesses since the 20s.
Love your essays & pics! Thanks so much for these backward glances.
Just to note
1) You left out THE PISCES CLUB which occupied the top two floors during the Cerberus era. WP: “, the private playground of Georgetown’s beautiful people” (Claude Wyatt Dickerson, Jr.).
2) Not the first Ford Bldg in DC:
“The Ford Motor Company building was erected in 1915-1916 and designed by Albert Kahn. Ford sold the building in 1931 to the District of Columbia. The building was located at 451-455 Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1979 it was demolished …” http://fordmotorhistory.com/factories/washingtondc/photos_1.php