In 1879, Samuel Walter Woodward wrote to his business partner, Alvin Lathrop, that Washington, D.C., was the place for them as the young Massachusetts entrepreneurs sought a new location for their innovative dry goods store. Departing from the common practice of bargaining with customers over prices, they introduced fixed prices and the option to return goods. Woodward saw promise in the nation’s capital, which in the 14 years since the Civil War had grown in stature as the center of a strong federal government and had been modernized with broad paved streets and avenues, sewers, gaslights, and thousands of young trees. Drawn by this expanding city and its growing population of residents seeking government work and business opportunities, Woodward and Lothrop arrived in 1880 and opened Boston Dry Goods near Seventh and Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1887, they moved the enlarged business, now a modern department store, to F Street, helping make it Washington’s premier downtown shopping boulevard. Affectionately called “Woodies,” Woodward and Lothrop remained a Washington tradition until closing in 1996.
