Capitol Cadillac, one of the longest-running Cadillac auto dealerships in the Washington, D.C., region, has closed down in Greenbelt, ending 86 years in business.
Capitol Cadillac – located at 6500 Capitol Drive, half a block off Greenbelt Road – had its last day of operation on November 18, according to a voice message left by the dealership on its main business phone line. The business assets of Capitol Cadillac were sold to the Sport Automotive organization in Silver Spring. Sport Cadillac opened for business on November 19.
Attempts to reach the former owners of Capitol Cadillac and the current owners and managers at Sport Automotive and Sport Cadillac were unsuccessful, as several phone messages left at the offices of all three businesses were not returned.
Capitol Cadillac first opened for business in Washington, D.C., in 1934. The dealership operated in D.C. until 1979, when the business moved to its new location in Greenbelt. That location was notable for being visible from both the Capital Beltway and from Greenbelt Road.
According to The History of Washington, D.C. Cadillac Dealerships by Richard Sills et.al. (clcpotomacregion.org), Floyd DeSoto Akers took over the representation of Cadillac and LaSalle automobiles in 1934 under the name of the Capitol Cadillac Company. Akers, a World War I veteran, was a native of Wabash County, Ind. But the Washington Post reported that he is “no stranger to Washington, having been Cadillac zone manager here for three years before he left in 1928 to assume direction of the Boston zone. A sales and service building at 1222 22nd Street, N.W., containing over 40,000 square feet of space in a four-story building became the headquarters of the new dealership. It provided space for offices, a service department, a parts department and a shop, paint and trim department.”
Also, according to the Caddie Chronicle, “In the General Motors hierarchy of sales outlets, Capitol was considered a distributor, which was higher up on the food-chain than a typical dealer.” As such, it opened two suburban dealerships, Akers Oldsmobile-Cadillac in Alexandria and Suburban Cadillac-Oldsmobile in Bethesda. Both of these stores were later sold – the Virginia dealership is now Lindsay Cadillac and the Bethesda dealership is Coleman Cadillac.
In the March 1958 issue of Popular Science magazine, an article describes how Capitol Cadillac serviced and repaired the White House Cadillacs used to transport President Eisenhower, the First Lady and other dignitaries. Akers remained at the helm until he retired in 1970. Aside from his automotive career, he was a civic leader, serving as chairman of the D.C. Armory Board and as a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He was also a part-owner of the Washington Senators baseball team. In addition to his other contributions to Washington, Akers had a major role in launching a well-known local success story, the Blackie’s chain of restaurants.
(Ulysses George Auger, known as “Blackie,” was a Pennsylvania native and a second-generation Greek-American. According to Auger’s obituary in The Washington Post in 2004, he served in the military during World War II, and shortly thereafter he came to Washington. He and his wife, Lulu, started a café at 22nd and M Streets N.W.)