Hecht Company
 German Roots in Washington

  • The Hecht Company's main downtown store was located at the southeast corner of 7th and F Streets, where Alexander and Moses Hecht, the sons of a German-Jewish merchant family from Baltimore, first opened a shop on March 20, 1896 at 515 Seventh Street. Photo 2015. Photo Credit: Bruce Guthrie
    The Hecht Company's main downtown store was located at the southeast corner of 7th and F Streets, where Alexander and Moses Hecht, the sons of a German-Jewish merchant family from Baltimore, first opened a shop on March 20, 1896 at 515 Seventh Street. Photo 2015.
  • The clock at the corner of 7th and F Streets always marked a convenient place to meet. For years, it was a dusty place for pigeons to land. Now, cleaned, renovated, and working, the clock is reclaiming its former glory as well as its old function, 2015. Photo: Goethe-Institut Washington/William Gilcher
    The clock at the corner of 7th and F Streets always marked a convenient place to meet. For years, it was a dusty place for pigeons to land. Now, cleaned, renovated, and working, the clock is reclaiming its former glory as well as its old function, 2015.
  • Detail from the Hecht Company's façade, 2015. Photo: Goethe-Institut Washington/William Gilcher
    Detail from the Hecht Company's façade, 2015.
The Hecht Company's main department store downtown was located here at the southeast corner of 7th and F Streets, where Alexander and Moses Hecht, the sons of a German-Jewish merchant family from Baltimore, first opened a shop on March 20, 1896 at 515 Seventh Street. The current building--which has been completely rebuilt and restored as a mixed-use commercial and residential building called “Terrell Place”--opened to great fanfare in November 1925. Overhead, an over-sized four-sided clock served--and now serves again--as a convenient landmark meeting-place for shoppers and others. 

Macy's acquired The Hecht Company, which had been absorbed into The May Department Stores Company, and currently (2010) operates the only large department store still in existence in downtown DC, in a more spacious building further west at 1201 G Street NW.

Historic American Buildings Survey - Hecht Company Building