At the Crossroads

At the Crossroads. Tour of Duty. , The large building that wraps around this corner was constructed as a department store in 1892 by Elizabeth A. Haines. She proudly advertised it as "the largest store in the world, built, owned and controlled by a woman." Back then extended families typically had six to fourteen people, and Haines knew that hundreds of potential customers passed this intersection daily., More than a century earlier, before Washington's founding in 1791, Pennsylvania Avenue was a bumpy dirt road connecting the Maryland countryside beyond the Anacostia River to the port of Georgetown on the Potomac. Its stagecoach, cart, and carriage traffic grew with the new capital. Lewis DeBlois noted the traffic, and in 1795 he built one of the area's first taverns. It was once located ahead of you on the corner occupied in 2004 by a gas station. William Tunnicliff soon took over the tavern and it became known as Tunnicliff's Tavern. It offered food, lodging and spirits to travelers and residents here before he moved the business closer to the Capitol and its politicians., Washington grew dramatically during and after the Civil War, and so did Eighth Street. New businesses served the military and a growing population of government clerks and Navy Yard workers. When the widow Haines arrived in 1882, she and her children lived above a small store nearby on 11th Street. After ten successful years, she commissioned noted local architect Julius G. Germuiller to design this grand department store. Haines's store - "fifty stores in one" - was the largest enterprise here. Most others were modest family businesses like George J. Beckert's cigar store at 405 Eighth Street.