Bloomingdale

Bloomingdale sits just north of Florida Avenue in Northwest Washington, between North Capitol Street and LeDroit Park. Florida Avenue was originally known as Boundary Street, marking the northern edge of the original City of Washington. Beyond it, the land that would become Bloomingdale remained largely rural through much of the 19th century.

That began to change in the late 1800s. An electric streetcar line arrived around 1887, making the area more accessible from the city center and encouraging landowners to subdivide their farms and estates. Beginning in the 1890s, developers rapidly filled the new neighborhood with rowhouses; by 1905, more than 1,000 buildings had been constructed.

The Neighborhood Story

As Bloomingdale matured, it became home to generations of Washingtonians, including prominent professionals, artists, educators, public officials, and civic leaders. Notable residents have included labor leader Samuel Gompers, public-health advocate Dorothy Ferebee, diplomat Will Mercer Cook, comedian Moms Mabley, and Broadway legend Chita Rivera, who grew up on Flagler Place.

Bloomingdale also played an important role in the fight against housing discrimination. Nearly half of the documented legal challenges to racially restrictive housing covenants in Washington were associated with the neighborhood. Two Bloomingdale cases, Hurd v. Hodge and Urciolo v. Hodge, reached the U.S. Supreme Court alongside Shelley v. Kraemer in 1948, when the Court ruled that racial covenants could not be judicially enforced.

The neighborhood’s role in Black civic and cultural life continued through the mid-20th century. Mount Bethel Baptist Church became an important center of local activism, and its pastor, Rev. Leamon White, participated in civil-rights organizing and preparations surrounding the 1963 March on Washington.

The Architecture

What makes Bloomingdale especially distinctive is that so much of it was built during a relatively short period, from the 1890s through the early 1900s. That created long, cohesive rows of houses while still allowing architects and builders to experiment with form and ornament. The neighborhood’s earlier rows are especially known for alternating rectangular and rounded projecting bays, corner towers, conical roofs, Roman brick, carved stone lintels, decorative slate, clustered windows, and elaborate rooflines.

First Street contains some of the grandest examples. Several rows feature three-story projecting bays and dramatic corner houses whose towers rise above the surrounding rooftops. One section of First Street was even promoted in 1904 as the “Fifth Avenue of Bloomingdale.” As the neighborhood developed, these exuberant Victorian and Edwardian houses gradually gave way to simpler early-20th-century rows with broad front porches and lower rooflines, making Bloomingdale an unusually clear visual record of how Washington rowhouse design evolved.

Hidden in the Details

A black cat tucked into the artwork is inspired by a neighborhood cat that regularly visits the back porch of The Capital Candy Jar’s owner. It is a small, personal nod to everyday life in Bloomingdale.

The carved theatrical masks above the rear door honor Chita Rivera, the Tony Award-winning actress, singer, and dancer who grew up in Bloomingdale at 2134 Flagler Place NW before becoming one of Broadway’s most celebrated performers.

You’ll also find 2014 hidden in the design, marking the year The Capital Candy Jar began creating sweets in Washington, D.C.

Bring Bloomingdale Home