The seven apartment buildings along the 1400 block of R Street, N.W., are 75 years old now, but for those in the know, they’re still good for a laugh or two. Beginning at 1416 R Street and heading westward to 1440, the four-story brick buildings are named Walton, Arden, Ripley, Dudley, Marcella, Ashton, and Newlon.
In an era of prosperity and peace, of sporty cars and speakeasies, of Calvin Coolidge and Al Capone, he led a fashion-conscious city through the Roaring Twenties. His name was Julius Garfinckel, and in his time he reigned as the merchant prince of the nation’s capital.
AS HE FACED CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATORS in an eleventh-hour attempt to salvage his reputation, if not his fortune, Harry Wardman swayed nervously in the witness chair. Even at 62, though slightly florid, the one-time kingpin of the Washington real-estate business had not lost the vitality and vigor that had compelled him so often to work 20-hour days. He had come down