Part Three: The Cokinos Brothers Go Their Separate Ways /Macomb Street

Hain's Point abt 1920 Pete, Pota, Katy, Adam and little George

The Cokinos Brothers came to Washington, D.C. from Greece in the early 1900s. My grandfather Pete and his brothers Adam and Alec lived above the various candy shops they ran until they had enough money to do other things. Adam and Pete both bought homes for their families near the shops on 9th Street NW and H Street NE, but those two had very different ideas about their retirement gigs.

In 1922 Adam bought a fifty acre farm on the Rockville Pike at Montrose Road in Montgomery County, Maryland. Today high rises and shopping centers have replaced the barns and fields, but in those days the fifty-six acre tract was known as the National Vaccine and Anti-Toxin property, 

Here is a picture of the original house which was built with rammed earth and stone by Rudolph Gaegler in the 1850s or so.

Adam wanted to have a farm to table kind of place which would supply restaurants with fresh produce. Unfortunately his property manager smoked in bed and burned the place down.

At least that’s what my father always told me.

I discovered another somewhat harrowing explanation in a Washington Star article from July 1925.  John Cooley, the property manager and his 35 year old son Jesse were living in an outbuilding on the farm because Adam had already sold off the Gaegler house and eight acres in 1924. According to the article, poor Jesse was pumping the kitchen's coal oil stove when it exploded. His clothing caught on fire, and a neighbor severely burned his hands trying to get Jesse’s clothes off. In desperation, Jesse ran to a nearby creek to douse himself, but it was no use. A passing motorist took him to a hospital where he died.

Adam never did move to the farm, and after this unhappy event, he sold both the property and his candy store. He moved the family up to Philadelphia where his wife Katy could be near her folks again. 

In 1920 Pete bought property on Macomb Street back when the street car turned here off Wisconsin Avenue and trundled on to American University. Not much else was here at the time. Pete filed a permit in 1925 to build a two story building with storefronts and apartments above the shops. 

The Cokinos family moved here from H Street NE in 1926.

Pete and Pota
Catherine, Nick and George on Macomb.

The first tenants were a druggist, a grocer and a hardware man. My brother Peter remembered a High's store which sold ice cream when he lived there in the 1940s. Today the whole building houses one restaurant- Cactus Cantina. In 1927, Pete opened another candy store, but most of the customers were construction workers from the National Cathedral looking for lunch. Pota would run upstairs and get them soup or a sandwich.  Here's my grandmother hanging out the window of her apartment.

Another photo, taken in 1927 shows the building when it backed up to the eighteen hole golf course which was part of the Mclean Estate. (later McLean Gardens)  Evalyn and her husband Ned McLean squandered millions and threw lavish parties on the 75 acre property which included their home, a cast iron swimming pool, and stables.  

 

Rumor has it that Evalyn allowed her dog to wear the Hope Diamond. Maybe that's why it's now safely stowed in the Smithsonian. 

By 1929 Pete and Pota converted the candy shop into a lunch room. They called it Macomb Cafeteria although it was more like a diner with a few stools and booths. The ad below might send mixed signals, but whatever the dining experience, the room was only one storefront wide.

Unfortunately Pete found out a bit too late that his apartment manager liked to gamble. Pete had to sell part of the building to pay the back taxes. Two Amy's Pizza occupies this space these days. You can see the painted dividing line. 

Meanwhile the youngest brother Alec had moved uptown with Pete. Alec was still a lonely bachelor, but happily for him, the Haramkapolos brothers had just brought their sister Koula over from Greece.  (Not to be confused with my grandmother Pota who was a Haralampakos which might explain why my father was always confused about her maiden name.) 

Alec and Koula were married in 1926 and lived in an apartment over Burka’s Liquor Store for about six years. Their daughter Catherine was born in 1927. Here they are right in front of the building on Macomb with Wisconsin Avenue behind them.

In the early 1930s, another baby was on the way, and the apartment wasn't getting any bigger. Alec and Koula became the caretakers of St Sophia's church which was on 8th and L Street NW at the time. The church provided them with their own digs right next door, and that is where they brought up their family.  Their door was always open...