Designed by Frank R. Hollingshead and built in 1919 as a one-story grocery store, 1402 Independence Ave. SE was the home of Piggly Wiggly between 1921 and 1925.

In 1920, Piggly Wiggly supermarkets took Washington by storm, opening 26 stores in one day, and opening still more in 1921. On opening day everyone received a free carnation. Piggly Wiggly’s founder, Clarence Saunders, believed that retail groceries could be more profitable and provide a better shopping experience if customers could select their own groceries, pay and take their groceries home. Shoppers entered a Piggly Wiggly store through a turnstile, picked up a basket, then walked through the store’s four aisles, arrayed with individually priced items, selected what they wanted, went to the checking counter, where a clerk added the purchases on an adding machine, the customer paid and the clerk placed the purchases in a free paper bag for the customer to bring home. Before Piggly Wiggly, clerks waited on customers individually; groceries were delivered to customers’ residences; and customers carried monthly accounts.

Piggly Wiggly dealt directly with suppliers and cut out wholesale grocers. The chain’s business model was to lease stores and staff them with its own employees (men only). Self-service required fewer clerks. By today’s standards, the stores were small. The Independence Avenue store was 1,750 square feet and carried only about 1,000 items. Today there are more than 600 Piggly Wiggly stores in 17 states in the Midwest and South, each independently owned and operated.

After the Independence Avenue store closed, Eugene and Maude Racca, who lived at 1426 Ames Pl. NE, used the location for the Crusty Pie Co. between 1929 and 1933. In the 1940s and 1950s there were radio and appliance stores, and in the 1980s, a printing company. Thankful Baptist Church now owns the building.

NOTE: This is one of four commercial buildings I’ll be uploading fairly quickly. Interesting histories, I guess, but not particularly interesting buildings.

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For more information on this historic sites, go to the restoration society’s web page for the tour at http://chrs.org/historic-sites-tour-2020/

Best to view in "Original" because other versions resized by Pbase are decidedly unsharp.

Bowling alley/pool hall/furniture store/funeral home/hotel, posted earlier: