Photo via International Association of Firefighters Local 36
Frager’s Hardware faces a long restoration following Wednesday’s devastating fire that destroyed nearly every inch of the 93-year-old Capitol Hill store. But devotees of the community mainstay will soon be able to get something of a Frager’s experience.
District officials are making arrangements for Frager’s to open a temporary store on Sunday at the location that formerly housed the interim Eastern Market that opened after that D.C. landmark was consumed by a fire in April 2007.
Mayor Vince Gray, other D.C. officials, and Frager’s owner John Weintraub will announce Sunday morning plans to open a short-term store atop the concrete slab across the street from the rebuilt Eastern Market. The makeshift Eastern Market housed the legendary food hall’s merchants for more than two years as the original structure was rebuilt.
Once it’s set up, it will have the rest of the summer to sell garden products and other items salvaged from the fire. “It’s great to see all parts of our city—government, neighbors and businesses—rally to support a local institution,” Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) told The Hill Rag.
But the city controls that concrete parcel for only a few more months. The Department of General Services is slated to turn the lot over to the redevelopment of the Hine Middle School into a mixed-use development once that deal is completed later this year.