In 1879, Samuel Walter Woodward wrote to his business partner, Alvin Lothrop, that Washington, D.C., was the place for them as the young entrepreneurs sought a new location for their innovative dry goods store near Boston, Massachusetts. Unhappy with the bargaining common in stores of the day, they were the first to charge a fixed price and to allow returns. Woodward saw new vitality and promise in the nation's capital. Since the end of the Civil War just 14 years earlier, Washington had gained new importance as the center of a strong federal government and had been thoroughly modernized with broad paved streets and avenues, sewers, gaslights, and thousands of new trees. As Americans flocked to the newly important capital for government jobs and business opportunities, Woodward and Lothrop joined them in 1880 and opened their store near Seventh and Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1887, they moved their enlarged establishment, now a modern department store, to F Street, helping make it the city's premier downtown shopping boulevard. Affectionately known as "Woodies," the store remained a Washington tradition until it closed in 1996.
