Evening star., 1951-11-04
New Hecht Co. Store
Emphasizes Suburbs
Continuing Expansion
By Robert J. Lewis


suburbs Of the District as they
sought to serve big, rich and
growing retail market.
Since the World War II, more
and more stores have been located
in the outlying areas. following
closely after the hundreds of de-
velopments containing more than
100000 homes and apartments
which have mushroomed on near
by cornfields and pastures in the
last five years.
Newest of the big stores on the
outskirts built by downtown firms
Is the Hecht Co.'S new building
at the intersection of Wilson
boulevard and Glebe road, Airing
ton. 1t was opened Friday.
Big Kann's Branch Nearby.
Soon to open in the same gee.
eral area is the big Kann's branch
at 3401 North Fairfax drive. sew
eral blocks beyond the Clarendon
business center in Arlington. It
will have large parking area,
which will be shared with shop
ping center now we'll under way.
The shopping center is owned by
Mace Properties, Inc.
while LanSburgh's has not as
yet undertaken a branch store
program, the firm has announced
such program is contemplated.
Sears Roebuck, which long ago
started development of its neigh
borhood stores having their own
parking facilities, a year ago.
opened its fourth and newest store
in Silver Spring. The Young Mems
Shop recently opened a new
branch in Clarendon.
New Kind of Main Street.
Until recent years most of the
stores in the new neighborhoodSI
were of the small-store Variety
hardware stores, drugstores,
small women'S and children's
shops, liquor stores, bakeries,
groceries, delicateSsens, sewing
centers, variety stores, barber and
beauty shops.
But as downtown congestion in
creased and the city spread far
ther and farther, downtown stores
began to sense that a magic new
kind of main street" was in the
making in the outlying sections.
The main attraction of these
outlying centers was free parking
space. With parking available,
they could draw from whole areas,
not neighborhoods alone. Almost
simultaneously the big depart
ment stores realized that new
merchandising techniques were
created.
Branch Shops at First.
At first. downtown stores simply
set up small shops as branches.
AS early as 1927. Jelleff's opened a
branch on Connecticut avenue at
r street and another In the $500
block Of Connecticut avenue in
1888.
But it wasn't until 1912 that
the first large downtown store
took the plunge and built its own
branch building. That was Gar
finckel's, which established a
Spring Valley store on Massa-
chusetts avenue NV. since con-
siderably enlarged.
When Woodward g. Lothrop
bought the old Palais Royal right
after the war, 1t acquired along
with it three branch stores. one
in Bethesda, another in Arlington
Farms. Va. and third in the
Pentagon.
Planning Gets Underway.
AS postwar planning got under
way, both Hecht's and Woodward
& Lothrop made early decisions
to go ahead with large branches.
Several years ago. Hecht's opened
its big Silver Spring branch. and
subsequently enlarged it.
Woodward & Lothrop soon fol-
lowed with its large Bethesda
Chevy Chase suburban store on
Wisconsin avenue at Western ave-
nue., Bethesda, which opened just
a year ago. The Woodward firm
closed the Arlington Farms shop
but has retained it's store at 1901
Wisconsin avenue, Bethesda, as a
branch of it's North Building, as
well as its branch In the Penta-
gon.
Several weeks ago, woodward IL
Lothrop announced it will estab-
lish a new branch in Alexandria
to contain about Is 900 square feet
of floor space, with parking for
about 200 cars. in the block
bounded by Washington. Wythe,
st. Asaph and Pendleton streets.
This firm also owns a large Ar
lington County store site on Glebe
road, not far from Lee boule-
ward, which has been tied up in
the courts over zoning con-
troversy.
Still another downtown de-
partment store which recently
announced it will open a branch
is Goldenberg's, which has signed
a lease for a two-floor building at
the corner of Minnesota avenue
and Dix street NE. It will be the
first branch of this firm.
Department store owners have
not been the only downtown
merchants to spread out their
operations to the outlying sec
tionS.
A variety Of appliance stores,
dress shops, shoestores, radio and
television stores have reached out
into the important Maryland and
Virginia shopping areas.
Attract Many Businesses.
Such big suburban business CEN
ters as Silver Spring, Claren-
don, Shirlington, Alexandria and
Wheaton as well as many smaller
city and suburban commercial
areas have attracted many busi-
nesses that did not originally de-
pend on a downtown base of op-