Automobile Row

Automobile Row. A Fitting Tribute. , Etched into the corner of the building next to this sign are the names of cars and trucks sold here back when showrooms lined this stretch of 14th Street. Hurley Motor Company, which opened here in 1920, sold Milwaukee-made Nash cars and trucks. Trew Motor Co. (now Studio Theatre's main building) opened the same year to sell Peerless and REO cars., Horse-drawn streetcars began running along 14th Street from New York Avenue to Boundary Street (Florida Avenue) in 1862, making a major transportation corridor that attracted residential development. In the early 1900s, when automobiles became affordable, showrooms clustered here. In 1925 some 40 car-related businesses operated on 14th Street between Thomas Circle and R Street. But as the DC suburbs exploded in the 1950s, most dealerships followed their customers out of town. , As you continue to Sign 4, you'll pass John Wesley AME Zion Church, a DC Historic Landmark at 14th and Corcoran Streets. Organized in 1847, the church purchased the St. Andrews Episcopal Church building in 1913. Fifty years later, after civil rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered in Jackson, Mississippi, his body lay in state here as 25,000 people filed through to pay him tribute. Evers, a decorated World War II veteran, was buried at Arlington Cemetery. At 14th and Q note the former Berret School, built in 1889. It was named for James G. Berret, DC elected mayor from 1858 until the outbreak of the Civil War. As a Confederate sympathizer, he refused to swear allegiance to the Union. He was forced then from office and briefly imprisoned.