Washington Post - March 29th, 1936

Take a Trip Back in Time to Colonial Village DC

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Here’s and old ad from 1936 showing a neighborhood that we haven’t yet shared with you — Colonial Village.

Washington Post - March 29th, 1936
Washington Post – March 29th, 1936

If you aren’t familiar, it’s a neighborhood at the top of the DC diamond near Silver Spring.

8 thoughts on “Take a Trip Back in Time to Colonial Village DC”

  1. Sanitary Stores were already operating over 400 stores in the DC/MD/VA when, in 1928, California’s Safeway Stores acquired them in a merger. However, the stores continued to be operated under the Sanitary Stores name until early 1941 when they were all re-badged with the Safeway name. (In 1927, Sanitary Stores had acquired the DC area Piggy-Wiggly Markets which had pioneered the “self-service” concept.)

    As late as the late ’80s, I can remember seeing the name “Sanitary Stores” cast in stone over the entrance to an old warehouse in the Eckington Yards while riding MetroRail. Does that warehouse still stand?

  3. An examination of The Washington Post, Sunday, March 29, 1936 P.B. (Pre-Bezos) shows that the Colonial Village Shopping Center was located in the “1700 Block of Wilson Boulevard, between Woodrow Wilson School and the Colonial Village Apartments”.

    Google Maps shows the same strip center on that same site today.

    Perhaps most surprising to me is the fact that Sanitary Stores was opening just two storefronts away from a brand new outlet of “The Great A&P Tea Company”. I guess Kass Realty Co. had no qualms about leasing almost-adjoining spaces to the two most competitive grocers in the DC area! (Giant Food was years away from challenging either of those firms.)

    A new “Peoples Hardware Co.” store separated the Sanitary from the A&P. A Rexall outlet was operated by “The Wallace Drug Company” and there was a new Beauty Salon, Bakery, Variety Store and “Arcade-Sunshine” Dry Cleaners as well.

  4. Few people except the old timers don’t realize that Sanitary Grocery is now Safeway Grocery. I imagine they changed the name when they realized that Sanitary sounds more like a scrubbed bathroom than a place to buy food.

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