Uncovering the Past in Forest Hills, D.C.
Last week I only had to walk one block north of Washingtoniana when I spotted it. Hiding behind a Rube Goldberg-like contraption of utility pipes and meters was a section of wrought iron railing painted battleship gray. Radiating out from a centered, vertically-oriented opening were lightning bolts that culminated in sunbursts.
“This is old and there has to be a story behind it,” I surmised.
Arriving back at Washingtoniana, the first thing I did was to check the DC Government Office of Planning’s HistoryQuest DC map. Typing in the address of the building resulted in discovering that it was constructed in 1948 and that the original owner was the Chevy Chase Radio & Electric Company. I realized immediately that this railing had to be part of the original business that opened at this address 70 years ago.
Next I conducted a search of the Evening Star newspaper database (available at any DC Public Library or remotely with a DCPL library card). Searching “4420 Connecticut” with the searched narrowed to just 1948 resulted in hits for two businesses at this address but neither of them were the Chevy Chase Radio & Electric Company.
Having recalled seeing another entrance at the south end of the building opposite the 4420 address imprinted on a canopy over an entrance at the north end, I searched for “4418 Connecticut.” Quickly I found four advertisements that the Chevy Chase Radio Company ran between April and August of 1948. Next up was to search Washingtoniana’s Evening Star Photo Morgue and the Historical Image Collection to see if there were any photos of the building as it originally looked in 1948.
Nothing.
Next I consulted Forest Hills, an Images of America book published in 2006 by the Forest Hills Neighborhood Alliance. No luck there either.
Lastly, I ran a Google Images search for “Chevy Chase Radio Company” and, in addition to lots of photos of the actor Chevy Chase, found one black and white photo of a building titled Potomac Electric Power Co. But plainly visible on the building was signage that read “Dowd’s Chevy Chase Radio & Electric Company.” The poor quality photo was credited to Theodor Horydczak, whose photo archive (I knew) was housed in the Library of Congress.
Within seconds I was on the Library of Congress website, which had (unfortunately) the same poor quality exterior photo but included an interior image of the business as well. Both photos were taken by the photographer on April 15, 1948, the first month that Chevy Chase Radio began advertising in the “Star.”
It’s too bad that this nice example of wrought iron craftsmanship is not more visible to passersby on the sidewalk, but if it had been it probably would not have survived the past seven decades.
–Jerry McCoy, Special Collections Librarian
Finding Gems in the Edward Fletcher Photograph Collection
Special Collections Volunteer Irene Kellogg recently came across this 1947 photo of the Bradford Barbell Club in the newly acquired Edward Fletcher Photograph Collection. Irene, a photographer herself and a longtime friend of the Fletcher family, shares her thoughts on working with this collection in a piece titled, “Finding Gems in the Edward Fletcher Collection: A Volunteer’s Viewpoint:”
Gathering the donated collections of a body of work and organizing a myriad of media topics for library users is no small task, but an outsider might believe it to be so. My first initial introduction to the process entailed working on one phase of a photographic collection. The boxes appeared to contain carefully prearranged prints with or without their medium format negatives, which had to be verified. I entered a small amount of information on each item, such as location, subject, and possible dates, if not provided. Finally, I added brief descriptive data about the images into a spreadsheet. This preliminary identification work and data entry was not difficult. It was part of the learning foundation for me. The more mundane and pioneering work was yet to come in the learning process. It would center on the tasks relating to the actual accessioning process. I understood this to mean finding out how much ‘stuff’ has to be stored – in linear feet. Believe it or not, I was really looking forward to tackling those 27 boxes of photographic material that had been shipped from Tacoma, WA to Washington, DC on February 17, 2018.
Ergo, my personal discovery of what may appear as a straightforward project has opened the door to a variety of learning, as well as discoveries. It certainly is fortuitous that I got the assignment of working on the Edward Fletcher Collection. I truly believe that there is some cosmic force that started a simple query to Ray Barker, DC Public Library Special Collections Archivist. I asked if the division might be interested in seeing photographic samples of the historical works done by a deceased photographer, Edward Fletcher. Fletcher was one of the founders of the FotoCraft Camera Club, founded in 1937 and officially established in 1940.
My next task was helping the archivist with the accessioning of the Edward Fletcher Collection. Now, we’re reopening the 27 boxes I helped to pack in Tacoma, WA. The first step in a structured process was work! Why? Well, it is simple: this time I had time to look – really look – into the hastily packed boxes. It was not a task of just transferring items again from one container to another. “Astounding!” was all I could think. I was handling slides, albums, and images of Joe Louis, Nat King Cole, and Lena Horne. In addition, I had to transfer the mostly organized negatives of Howard University; Nannie Helen Burroughs; the Langston Terrace Golf Tournament; Thurgood Marshall; the NAACP; Pearl Bailey (who lived in NE, DC) and her husband, John Pinkett; the YWCA, etc. I was looking quickly, but nonetheless, I was looking at all before me. Something caught my eye all of sudden; it was an envelope marked “YMCA – weight lifters, 1947.” Here was a crown jewel, I thought to myself – a gem among so many other gems.
For background, the Bradford Barbell Club was officially started in 1947. The Club moved to the Anthony Bowen 12th Street YMCA (it was known as the colored Y). One should realize that back then, during this period, the nation’s capital was still segregated. Young men could not compete in local DC weightlifting championships. Jim Bradford was recognized outside of DC as an up-and-coming weight lifter. Later, this strong man won the silver medal in both the 1952 and 1960 Olympics.
In 2008, I was hired as a photographer for the Bradford Barbell Club’s reunion. They met on November 9, in Washington DC at the Navy Yard.
So, not only am I a volunteer and explorer, but I have also touched in real time some of the lives of the people represented in the Edward Fletcher Collection. How lucky can one person be?
– Irene Kellogg, DC Public Library Special Collections Volunteer, as well as citizen, photographer, member of the FotoCraft Camera Club, and friend of the Fletcher Family