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July 1939. "Washington, D.C. Backyards of row houses." Where Sonny looks kind of lonely. Large-format negative by David Myers (Moffat). View full size.
Mom's schedule and the rest of our neighborhood was on Monday you washed everything, colored & whites. And yes captivated I have personal experiance that December through March were miserable since one of my chores after school was bringing in the laundry while my older sister folded. Mom's day of liberation came in the early 50's when Dad bought her a new electric washer and dryer. I missed the old washer for out went the wringer which was more of a toy to me than a tool.
I don't think these are "row houses" but rather the four unit apartments that are everywhere in DC. Evidence of this is the four quarters of porches with the visible doors for what would be the upper right unit in each building. The stairs from the upper units descended to the center doorway on the first floor. That they were enclosed was a further bonus on snow days. An awning was also added to one of the porches. I grew up in Glover Park and there were many of these units farther up Benton St., NW near Stoddert Elementary.
Hate to double post, but serious doubts about this pic being snapped in July due to the distinct lack of foliage on the trees.
How many women own a bag of clothespins - or have even put a load of laundry on a clothesline? The good old days? I imagine December thru March would be miserable.
I'm curious where this photo was taken. Is it near RFK stadium?
Besides what he's got tucked under his arm, there's a kiddie pedal car, and a toy dump truck on the horizon!
It appears that there must be screened in porches on these houses; a close look at the upper floor shows some clothes lines inside these porches with laundry on them.
Just about everybody has been laundering nothing but "whites." Now, Mom did the whites one day and the colors the next but not everybody in the neighborhood was on the same schedule as Mom.
I think these were apartments, rather than row houses, because you can see separate porches for upstairs and downstairs units.
We lived in for a while in an apartment in the 3400 block of Minnesota Avenue SE, with four units per building, and the backs looked somewhat like this.
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