On the Path
at Sign was completed in as a mission of the McKendree Methodist Church.Known as Fletcher Chapel,it may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Washington’s Anti-Saloon League began meeting at Fletcher Chapel in and later merged into the National Anti-Saloon League. The League helped persuade Congress to pass the th Amendment prohibiting alcohol sales and con- sumption in .Two years earlier,though, Congress imposed Prohibition on Washington as a test case.Local and national Prohibition ended with the 18th Amendment’s repeal in . In Fletcher Chapel was purchased by First Tabernacle Church of God and Saints of Christ. Across New York Avenue is Bible Way Temple. Founder Rev.Smallwood E.Williams began his preaching career outdoors on Seventh Street.At the time of his death in ,Williams led the more than churches of Bible Way Church World Wide.Active in civil rights and city politics, Williams saved his church from demolition for highway construction in .Today Interstate bends around its site. Just up Fourth Street at the corner of N and New Jersey is the site of the first pharmacy opened by Roscoe Pinkett.The family’s businesses went on to include John R.Pinkett,Inc.,a real estate and insur- ance company based in Shaw from until . Along the walk to Sign is the Yale Steam Laundry at - New York Avenue. The build- ing was designed in to complement its resi- dential neighbors.Yale’s state-of-the-art machinery washed, dried, and ironed Washingtonians’uni- forms,tablecloths,and linens.
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