28 Sep 2020

History:

Lost Capitol Hill: Frager’s Hardware Store

Anita Frager

In the last two weeks, I introduced Frank Frager and told about how he opened his hardware store. Today, I will look at the rest of the story.

While Frank Frager tended to his store, his sons were out to make names for themselves. While they occasionally were mentioned in long lists of students who had achieved some milestone, their real strength was in sports. Both of them excelled, with Julius leading the Jewish Community Center baseball team to victory, while George was more often cited for his prowess as a runner. Both sons married young, and continued to work with and for their father. While Fritz remained living at 11th and Pennsylvania Avenue, his sons moved to C Street northeast.

The closest brush with fame came in 1927, shortly after George had married Lilllian Lavenstein, when he was almost selected to be on the jury for the Teapot Dome scandal prosecution.

In 1931, Fritz Frager joined up with 24 other hardware merchants in Washington to create the Consolidated Hardware Stores of Washington. The advertisement announcing this proclaimed that “Now your community dealer combines chain store prices with his friendly personal service and intimate knowledge of your needs to serve you better.”

For the next couple of years, Consolidated ran advertisements listing their locations all across the city and even into the suburbs. After 1933, these advertisements vanish. Frager, however, continued to thrive, and in 1935, he received a permit to build a new store to replace the old buildings, which had been retrofitted for their purpose. The new building was designed by Julius Wenig, and built by the M. Cladny Construction Company, was to consist of a ground level store and apartments on the second floor. The cost was $15,000.

George Frager in his store (Frager family archive)

In the following years, all three male Fragers continued to work at the store, while the grandchildren thrived. They made few waves, the only time that they were mentioned in the paper was when a son or daughter was married. In fact, the next time Fritz Frager was mentioned was on August 11, 1958, when the Washington Post mentioned that he had died the previous day “of a heart attack in front of his home at 1115 Pennsylvania ave. se.” He was buried at the Mount Lebanon section of the George Washington Cemetery in Adelphi, Maryland.

The Frager sons continued to run the business, even after Julius was shot in the neck during a robbery in 1969. It was not until 1975 that they would sell to John Weintraub and Edwin Copenhaver, two recent George Washington University graduates. Given their almost complete lack of experience, the new owners convinced George to stay on, and he remained for many years. A Post article describes him as treating them “like adopted sons,” while the new owners were happy to have him around because they “still can’t find things Frager stashed away years ago.” At first, he helped out without pay, mainly to have something to do during the day, but later they put him on the payroll – part-time – “fixing windows and helping customers.”

Julius Frager – whose daughter Anita is seen above – would die in 1986, George would die in 1995. While both were survived by numerous children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, none of whom are involved in the hardware business.


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