Palais Royal was a large department store in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

at 11th and G streets NW in the

F Street shopping district Parts of F Street and 7th Street, N.W. and nearby blocks have historically been the heart of the Washington, D.C. Downtown shopping district. In the first half of the 20th century there were numerous upscale large department stores along and ne ...

. It also grew into a small chain before being purchased and merged into the

Woodward & Lothrop Woodward & Lothrop was a department store chain headquartered in Washington, D.C. that began as the capital's first department store in 1887. Woodies, as it was often nicknamed, maintained stores in the Mid-Atlantic states, Mid-Atlantic United St ...

chain. The Palais Royal began in 1877 further south 1117 Pennsylvania Avenue at the northeast corner of 12th St., in the Centennial Building, originally home to the

Bureau of Pensions The Bureau of Pensions was an agency of the federal government of the United States which existed from 1832 to 1930. It originally administered pensions solely for military personnel. Pension duties were transferred to the United States Department o ...

, and which would later become the Raleigh Hotel. It was founded by Abram Lisner (1855-1938), an immigrant from Germany who had first worked with his brother in a dry goods store in New York City. The store continued to expand within and by the 1890s Lisner decided to build a new larger 5-story dedicated structure for the store, further north in the commercial district around the F street corridor, at 11th and G streets. The new store opened in 1893 and was designed by architect Harvey L. Page in the Chicago style, a rarity in Washington, D.C. It continued to expand in its new location, by 1914 employing 600 people. In 1924 Lisner sold it to S. S. Kresge for around $5 million, who sold it to

in 1946. The downtown Palais Royal was across the street from the north side of the Woodward & Lothrop flagship and became an annex of it. Despite protest the building was torn down in 1987 and is now the site of the Washington Center office building. The Palais Royal opened branches in Bethesda (7201

Wisconsin Avenue Wisconsin Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs. The southern terminus begins in Georgetown just north of the Potomac River, at an intersection with K Street under the elevated Whitehurst Freeway. Wisco ...

) in 1942, and two in Arlington in 1943: Arlington Farms and at the Pentagon, which became Woodies branches.John DeFerrari, ''Lost Washington''
Arcadia Publishing, 2011, , p. 66

References

{{reflist Defunct department stores based in Washington, D.C. Demolished buildings and structures in Washington, D.C. Buildings and structures demolished in 1987