Garfinckel's Department Store, located at the northwest corner of 14th and F Streets, N.W. is a nine-story, steel frame, limestone clad commercial building. The rectangular building is fifteen bays wide along F Street (south elevation) and nine bays wide along 14th Street (east elevation). The building represents the stripped classical style and retains its original details, with only minor alterations to its storefronts. Two bays were added to the west end of the south elevation in 1946. They closely replicate the original details and are difficult to differentiate today.
Garfinckel f s Department Store, designed in 1929 by the New York architecture firm of Starrett and Van Vleck, is an excellent example of a 1920s department store. The building exemplifies the firm's acknowledged mastery of department store design and the stripped classical style. The building established the western end of F Street as one of the most fashionable areas in the city for upscale retailers to locate. The building is also significant for its association with founder Julius Garfinckel, who made important contributions to the city's retail and economic development through the founding of a major chain of department stores which set the tone for style and sophistication in Washington for eighty years.While no longer functioning as a department store, the building remains an important anchor of the city's downtown retail core.
At the building had remained vacant for several years it was redeveloped in 1999. It now has retail space in the lower level with offices located above.