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Washington, D.C., 1913. "E.F. Droop & Sons Co. music store." Back when the Victrola was the iPod of its day. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.
It looks like Droop's' had a side entrance to the building instead of a sidewalk elevator. There are at least two boxes are at the doorway, and possibly the man is holding a cart handle. The raised door is an intriguing building feature. That's a very nice looking Ford Model T in front of the building.
In an interesting bit of self promotion he has an advertisement for the Hamburg - American Line of steamships, for which he was an agent, above the windows on the left hand side of the photo. Buy a cruise get 1/2 off a Victrola?
Grates in the gauge of trolley tracks? Anyone know?
[As noted in this comment, for access to the electrical conduit under the center slot that powered the trolleys. -tterrace]
Looks like Droop's just got a train car load of upright Victrolas. Those crates had a distinctive tree-stand top to keep the freight crew from shipping these pricey new instruments upside down. Victor packed their machines very well, usually bolted into their crates. Even the shipping crates were well built, as evidenced by the slacker sitting on top of them. Can't tell if these are being unpacked on the street and then moved indoors, or if they had a sidewalk-access elevator that let them into basement storage one by one, still crated. I believe this was located at the corner of 13th and G Streets NW, which has all changed totally in the intervening years.
but they retained that entrance facing the center of the intersection at G ST & 13 ST NW.
Has nearly everyone's attention. Do I hear hundred-year-old wolf whistles?
As someone who once entertained the foolish ambition of life as a professional musician, I greatly miss the sights, aromas, and sounds of an old fashioned music store: the gleaming and sometimes exotic instruments on display (double-belled euphonium or bass clarinet, anyone?), the scent of rosin, valve oil, and polished hardwoods, the passing virtuoso trying out a piano's action or a couple in a booth exchanging moon-eyed glances as they audition a new release.
Oh, well, I suppose a few Hong Kong roués feel the same way about the demise of the opium den!
From what I see here Droop's business was mainly musical instruments and sheet music. The Victrola (talking machines, as the shippers listed them on their bills of lading) gave them extra income and customers. The other shot in the arm were the phonograph records that brought the customer back in the store more often. Soon to come, would be radio receivers and their assorted accessories like headphones, external speakers and those milk bottle sized vacuum tubes.
Anyone want to wager whether the "drooping" sign was intentional? hehe
Victrolas may be a part of history, but the Steinway piano brand that's also advertised on the truck is still going very strong a century later.
It's already half past noon and they have to deliver all these pianos today.
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