Interview with Angie Whitehurst, April 1, 2022

Okay. It is April 1st 2022. We're in downtown at the DC Public Library, Martin Luther King jr. branch. Today we're talking about how downtown has changed. Could you tell us your name?

My name is Angie Whitehurst.

And how long have you been in Washington, DC?

I was born here in 1952.

So you've been here your whole life,

My whole life.

could you tell us a little bit about your experiences downtown? And how the city has changed?

Oh my goodness, it's a completely different city. Downtown Georgia Avenue and 7th Street, they took Woolworth's, Con's [?], Landsberg. There was another store. we had Heck's which became Macy's and we had Garfinkel's, which was [unclear] and that's gone, it's now the Hampton. And we had the Reeves coffee shop and dessert shop, which I loved so much but I really love Woolworth's bonbons, hot cashews and the ribbons for my little pigtail. So that was a really important trip on Saturday. And then socks, socks with little lace to wear with my little black and white saddle shoes.

So you came down here with your mother, or your parents?

With my mother. And then once I was - After I was nine, she would let me and one of my friends Angela Rice ride the bus by ourselves. So we could ride downtown, go to a particular store, ride back or we could ride together to go to dance class in Petworth.

Nice. And did you - What did y'all do besides go to the store? Did you hang out or do other things?

When I was in high school, I cut class. And some of us, we came down, we rode the bus down through Georgetown, got over to this end of town, 15th Street, 14th Street, I Street, and we would catch the colorful stores, the colorful places like Archibald's, I think he mentioned This is It.

There's another place called the Room, that was mostly at nighttime and they had girly-girly adult bookstores like right up here at 14th and K and around in that quarter. So in the front of the store, it looked like records and stuff. And when you got like, six feet back, it was all of these gadgets and blown up men and women and balloons and stuff and magazines, and books and films and toys. But these were not toys that you got at Toys R Us. So we were going there and then got chased out, "What are you all doing here? Get out of my store," kind of thing, but that was fun.

Thats Interesting and who and - you said, there were quite a few of those stores downtown.

Yeah. Right. That was everywhere. That was the number one business for K Street, L Street, I Street. I forgot about the the Geisha House on K Street. Yeah it's a geisha house but that was for upscale people. Usually the congressmen and senators went there. And then another place called The White House, it's where the diplomats and the appointees went and those were college and law school student,women who made their - made money through moonlighting, stripping.

Okay, yeah.

And then Archibald's, which is still there. Girly girly downstairs and sports bar upstairs. But I've been in all of those places.

Interesting. And were there different feels for different clubs? You said the different clientele. But did they have different specializations?

One strip joint I went in was not in downtown DC. It was over in Southeast and it was definitely numbers, racket, big girls, big men, flashy money. I had a job going around collecting donations for something. So that's how I got to go in that one. But they were - The Foxy Playground was basically Black people up on Georgia Avenue. but late at night you would see white people, white men, white women. They all come in there when they think nobody's going to see them.

And then that - one of the oldest ones is still there. It's Macombo Lounge and we all have tried to get that place closed, but they have interesting ownership that gives them privilege to not be closed. I mean it's shut down there for renovations but the signs are still up there and somebody goes in and out of there.

How about 9th Street?

Oh yeah, you know, 9th Street, now that was my hang out. [laughs] 9th Street - Okay the Pinkett family who was a very influential real estate only family for decades, their office was there across the street from Shiloh. And all of the big numbers people had restaurants and places. the big most important one was the Chez Maurice.

Chez Maurice didn't come alive until about midnight or 1:00. Now, I didn't get to go to Chez Maurice until after I was grown up, probably around 24, 25. But that was where all the big guys, the powerful guys that were black, hang out. That's where all the deals were cut and they served liquor, but they didn't serve any food. And that's where the women came in to pick up their man for the night. But I didn't do that. I mean, but that is a legitimate -

We talk about these places but that was - that's a part of the economic culture, economic survival for many, many people, which is why it's important that they, when they pass laws, they should stop arresting and criminalizing people for picking up and for solicitation.

Do you remember, were there frequent police raids in those clubs?

I think, yeah, one lady, when I went out with David on his map project, they used to. And I remember this, they used to raid massage parlors because they considered massage parlors in DC as places of prostitution. And some of them were. I think the Geisha House on K street ended up having some difficulty. And most of that business moved from the District out to Rockville Pike. And then some places in Arlington.

But back in the day, Yes, if you had a massage - Even if you had a degree, which is certified, the District had it as crime and they would arrest you and throw you in jail and bar you from practicing massage. And so I think there are a couple of people who are - licensed massage people who are still alive now who were part of getting the massage therapist recognized and certified and having their own commission.

And do you remember, did you know folks that lived downtown?

I'm trying to [unclear] my friend, Regina Child, but I think her family has moved. They probably live in Maryland now. And I knew other people who lived more toward U street. There were some people who lived in the building on F Street, which kind of strange because that's an office building, but there apartments in there. And some people did live there and then there were homeless people who lived there in the evening, but you really didn't know that they were homeless, because they would get in the building and then they got cleaned up and come out like they were coming and going to work.

And then at the Y which was on K street, that was the fallback for anybody who didn't have money, didn't have a place to stay. It was the cheapest place you could stay in DC. I think it might have been something like $2 or $3 a night.

And so did a lot of the various clubs you talked about, when did they disappear? When did they move out?

They disappeared - They started disappearing right before Marion Barry became mayor. And then when they passed laws that enabled speculation and investment in real estate, that's when they all started to disappear. And I think some of them -

The drug culture really permeated the whole city. And so it would be people who bought cocaine, I don't think marijuana was such a big deal, but the upper crust drugs, and people would go places where they could buy it or enjoy it. And I think that that had an impact on some of the clubs. And we started bringing in more entertainment groups. And most - a lot of them were Black because, see, before Black entertainers that played in white clubs or they were at Carter Baron or someplace that was "allowable."

So, things changed. I think it was the drug culture that really pushed people out and then speculators, they were giving benefits for building and rehabbing. And that pushed them out because the rents were going to go up or Bud Dogged [?] or Dominique Antonelli, we're going to five buildings, raze it and turn it into a parking lot. And so then there was no place to move.

Then a lot of people when they started renovating, they didn't want the gambling, they didn't want the prostitution, they didn't want to adult entertainment places. They had to go. It was not respectable. Even though if you go around to the hotels, you ask these concierges, they still know where to go to refer their clients.

Thank you so much for sharing this story. Is there anything you'd like to add that we didn't - I know there's a lot we didn't touch on, but -

No, but I think you have enough for right now. The fact that I told you that I cut school to go visit places that you know underage people were not supposed to go. I went in to a couple of bars to and I got served, what was it, ice cream with maraschino cherries. [laughs] We'll end on that note.

Thank you so much.