What used to be at Braddock & Mount Vernon
One of the commercial areas in Rosemont is the intersection of Braddock Road and Mount Vernon Avenue. The southeast side, recently developed as Yates Corner, previously was a strip mall; tenants had included a 7-Eleven since the early 1960s, and a Subway since the early 1980s. Pauline Rose operated the Silver Shears salon for 40 years until she retired in 2007.
Along the Mount Vernon Avenue side of the property, there was a service station between the 1950s and 1980s, and a building which housed the offices of a baby photo studio in the 1970s and from which Kaufmann Office Equipment later sold typewriters until the 1990s.
Across the street, the Yates family have operated Yates Automotive since 1964, but there has been a service station on the site since the early 1940s.
Historically, the northwest corner also was a commercial area, including another service station and the first Burger Chef in the region, which opened in 1959. Later, it was the site of Artifacts, which sold “architectural antiques,” before the property was redeveloped as townhomes in the 1990s.
And Braddock Fields (recently renamed for Lenny Harris), which today provides open space for George Washington Middle School and the neighborhood, previously was the site of the greenhouses for florists – initially Guckert & Beck, and then the Alexandria Floral Company – from the 1920s until the 1940s. The attached aerial photo shows the area in 1964.