D.C.’s Oldest Hardware Store Houses Two Urban Farms

You can now buy a bucket of paint and a carton of beet greens at D.C.’s oldest hardware store. W. S. Jenks & Son, which opened in 1866, is home to not one but two urban farms, writes Laura Hayes in Washington City Paper. W.S. Jenks & Son is a member of The Hardware Connection Century Club.

Urban agriculture is gaining so much traction locally that the government is working to establish a specialized department to oversee key land use programs under the Department of Energy and the Environment.

In the meantime, urban farm operators are getting creative looking for underutilized spaces to grow. For Cultivate The City and Little Wild Things, that means taking up residence inside Jenks at 910 Bladensburg Road NE in Trinidad. The former is on the roof. The latter repurposed a storage space that had previously been used as a parking garage.

Jenk’s President Jerry Siegel says leasing space to both outfits is part of a strategy to get new and increased foot traffic into the shop, especially in today’s retail climate where physical stores are Amazon’s punching bags.

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