Georgetown's Retail Past: Generations Of Shops And Restaurants In One Of America's Great Historic Neighborhoods-..

Georgetown's Retail Past is a history of retail stores in Georgetown, from the town's eighteenth-century founding into the 1980s. That history reflects and illustrates trends in the economy generally and in retailing specifically, such as the transition from horse-drawn to automobile transportation, the advent and growth of home appliances, the decline of the barber shop and changes in the structures of the grocery and laundry businesses. The book is organized into chapters by store type: groceries, clothing, jewelry, shoes, bowling alleys, barber shops, hardware, antiques, bars, restaurants, and more. Each chapter contains short histories of several businesses and their owners, from various time periods. There is a total of 150 such historical sketches, ranging in length from a paragraph to several pages. Many of the neighborhood stores were started by immigrants and some immigrant families owned multiple stores over multiple generations; their entrepreneurial spirit is apparent throughout. Illustrated with 130 B&W photographs, including historic and current photographs, maps, and store advertisements.