912 NEW HAMPSHIRE AVENUE NW

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.