D. Vogt, 2022
912 NEW HAMPSHIRE AVENUE NW
YEAR BUILT:
1876
HISTORY
The two-story, six-bay white brick 7-11 store is one of the oldest buildings in the Historic District. It was originally built in 1876 as a dwelling (for C.M. Floyd). It continues the cornice of No. 910 and appears to have been built as row houses. It has been used a neighborhood food store for many years.
The only remaining store of the many Jewish markets in the Historic District is the 7-11 store (912 New Hampshire Ave.), built in 1876 and one of the oldest buildings in the Historic District. By 1887 German Catholic immigrant Theodore Ruppert operated a grocery store but lost his liquor license in 1896 and subsequently moved. Russian (Belarus) Jewish immigrants Benjamin and Anna Kolker (original name Kogod) ran the store from at least 1911 the 1920s-1930s. (17-year-old Jacob Kolker was arrested for violating prohibition laws in 1923 for selling illegal cider, but he later became a lawyer and moved to New York.) Flora Rubenstein ran the store (then called the New England Market) in the 1940s. By 1963 it was Nichols Food Superette, and it became a 7-11 store in 1982 (over some neighborhood objections, although the store operation was reduced from two to one story). Although the area is zoned residential, the commercial use of this building preceded the zoning.
For less than a week in April, 1959, "Beatnik" Bill Walker operated a Greenwich Village-type coffee house, called "Coffee 'n' Confusion" at the site. The police terminated the operation.
The second floor of the building is used for residential apartments.
RESIDENT(S)/ OWNER(S)
1890 - Theodore Ruppert (b. 1860 Germany), grocer, lived there with Otto Ruppert, a bartender, and Emil Spahn, a clerk (City Directory)
1900 - Francis L. Ford (b. 1865 DC), a letter carrier, lived there with John E. Brown, a barber, and Bruno Hinze, a brewer (City Directory)
1903 - for sale as a grocery story (Wash. Times Jan. 13, 1903)
1904 - Charles M. Ford owned 908, 910, and 912 New Hampshire Ave and transferred those to his children upon his death. (Evening Star, July 25, 1904)
1910 - Henry A. Favelson (white, b. 1860 Russia), a junk dealer, wife Sarah (b. 1856 Russia), grocer son Herman (b. 1889 Russia), saleslady daughter Annie (b. 1888 Russia), and daughtersJennie (b. 1895 MD) and Celia (b. 1897 MD) (Census)
1911 - Benjamin and Anna Kolker (Kogod) opened a grocery store
1916 - Daughter Sophie Kolker married Maurice H. Linder in Baltimore (Wash Times, Mar. 28, 1916)
1918 - Benjamin Kolker (white, b. 1870 Russia) dies of interstitial nephritis (death certificate)
1920 - Anna Kolker (white, b. 1874 Russia), grocer, children (all born MD), Dorothy (b. 1902), saleslady, Jacob (b. 1904), messenger, Lillian (b. 1908) and Sarah (b. 1910) (Census)
1923 - Jacob Kolker arrested for violating prohibition laws by making cider; he went to National University Law School and moved to New York (Wash. Times Sept. 26, 1923)
1930 - Kolker family (Census)
1940 - Flora Rubinstein (b. 1877 Russia) operated the "New England Market" grocery store (listed in the census as saleswoman, unpaid family worker"). Daughters Mae Harrison (b. 1898 England), beautician, and Minnie Rubenstein (b. 1908 DC), salesworker. (Census)
1949 - Abe Weintraug (b. Poland) - Eve. Star (July 8, 1949) indicates he took in his nephew and neice, Pinkas and Bela Fliegel, displaced persons from Poland.
1950 - Gene W. Hurd (b. 1924 FL), salesman, Betty I. (b. 1920 WV), wife, son William G. Schafer (b. 1943 VA), daughter Janet L. Schafer (B. 1950 VA) (Census).
RECOLLECTIONS
Joan Goldwasser, from metro DC, remembers her grandmother, Anna Kolker, living in the building around 1910 to 1940. Her grandfather, Ben, died in 1918. They came from Belarus, Russia and lived in Baltimore for a while. Then they moved to Foggy Bottom. She hopes her cousin has some photos to share. (From a conversation with Ms Goldwasser at the DC HIstory Conference, March 2023. )
SOURCE MATERIAL
FBA History Project, Funkstown - Foggy Bottom’s Jewish Immigrant Grocery Stores, Frank Leone, Oct. 12, 2025, https://www.foggybottomassociation.org/post/funkstown-foggy-bottom-s-jewish-immigrant-grocery-stores
FBA History Project, Foggy Bottom Historic District Walking Tour, "Historic Houses and Modern Murals." https://theclio.com/entry/144542
U.S. Census
DC City Directory
Joan Goldwasser memory, 2023
GALLERY
DOCUMENTS
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