Morris Cafritz

Early life and education

Cafritz was born to Jewish parents, Nathan and Anna Cafritz, in the Russian Empire (Lithuania). Based on papers filed in court, Cafritz was born in 1888; however, the year of his birth is not known and Cafritz had often understated his age. Along with his 4 siblings—Sarah, Carrie, Edwin and William—he was brought to the United States by his parents in 1898. After briefly settling in New York, the family moved to Washington and operated a small grocery store on 24th and P Streets NW. Cafritz began his business career in 1904 by buying the Star Coal and Coke Company, at 315 Q Street, with a $1,400 loan from his father. In 1911, he owned a saloon, the Old-Timer's Bar, at 8th Street and K Street, Southeast, Washington, D.C. He also acquired bowling alleys and by 1915, he was known as Washington's "bowling king".

Real estate development career

In 1916, he began developing two-story row-houses.

He developed the Greenwich Forest neighborhood in Bethesda, Maryland. He built the now-demolished Ambassador Hotel, at 14th and K Street. In 1932, he led the group that constructed the Westchester Apartments, at which Barry Goldwater resided. The same year, Cafritz built homes in the neighborhood next to the National Arboretum. Cafritz built the Majestic Apartments. In 1938, he built his residence, a mansion at 2301 Foxhall Road, N.W. In 1949, he built the Cafritz Building, at 1625 Eye Street. He developed several office buildings along K Street, including 1725 K, 1725 I, and 1735 I Streets.

Pentagon City was founded in 1946, when developers Morris Cafritz and Charles H. Tompkins acquired a 190-acre site of empty fields and commercial warehouses for $1.5 million.[2][3] On the Pentagon City Site Morris Cafritz developed the massive 1,600 unit River House Apartments. In the early 1960's Morris Cafritz received approval to bring the Washington, DC, Metro to the Pentagon City. The Pentagon City Metro stop was completed in the 1980's. In 2006 the remaining land at Pentagon City, including the River House Apartments, were sold to the New York City developer Vornado. At the same time the Cafritz warehouses were sold to the developer Kettler Brothers. Part of these properties are now the location for Amazon's new Washington, D.C. headquarters building.

Death

Cafritz died in 1964 of a heart attack. When he died, his estate was the largest ever probated in the District of Columbia. It took lawyers and IRS agents 4 years to settle the estate, which was valued in 1968 at $66 million. He is buried in the Washington Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Philanthropy

He raised $250,000 to build the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community Center, of which he was a charter member and president.

In 1964, he offered to donate the Chase's Theater and Riggs Building as a performing arts center.

The Morris Cafritz Center for the Arts at the DC Jewish Community Center is named for him.

Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation

Cafritz founded the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation in 1948, funding it with $11.5 million.

Family

In July 1929, Cafritz married Gwendolyn Detre de Surany, twenty years his junior. She was daughter of Hungarian immunologist, Dr Laszlo Detre de Surany, co-discoverer of the Wassermann test for syphilis, and his wife, Lillian Coblenzer, who settled at Washington in the 1920s and he became chief immunologist for the United States Public Health Service. Cafritz and Gwendolyn had 3 children: Calvin, Carter and Conrad. His son Conrad married Peggy Cooper Cafritz. When Gwendolyn died in 1988, her instructions to leave her entire estate to the foundation was challenged by her children, who were already multimillionaires.

His granddaughter is musician and guitarist Julia Cafritz. Their home was located on Foxhall Road and is now The Field School.

Among his second cousins were brothers Maxwell Chaffetz, an FBI special agent and grandfather of future Congressman Jason Chaffetz, and Hammond E. Chaffetz, who pioneered federal antitrust prosecution policies later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., before building Kirkland & Ellis into one of the most powerful law firms in the United States.

Morris Cafritz was a first to cousin to famed violinist Jascha Heifetz.

References

References

1. [http://www.jhsgw.org/exhibitions/online/jewishwashington/exhibition/real-estate-boom Jewish Washington: "Real Estate Boom"] retrieved September 18. 2014
2. Williams, Marjorie. (February 25, 1990). "CAFRITZ V. CAFRITZ". [[The Washington Post]].
3. Ozer, Mark N.. (March 3, 2010). "Massachusetts Avenue in the Gilded Age: Palaces & Privilege". [[Arcadia Publishing]].
4. Solomon, Burt. (June 29, 2010). "The Washington Century: Three Families and the Shaping of the Nation's Capital". [[HarperCollins]].
5. "Maryland Historical Trust Inventory No. M:35-165 Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties Form".
6. "[https://www.proquest.com/docview/150325448/D524076811246F4PQ/399 Cafritz Project Visited By Many: Prospective Home Buyers Are Much Attracted to Randolph Place]". ''The Washington Post''. April 10, 1932. p. R1.
7. "Center for the Arts".
8. (20 February 1972). "Carter Detre Cafritz is Fiance of Miss Mary Melissa Bertholf". The New York Times.
9. (1988-11-30). "D.C. HOSTESS GWENDOLYN CAFRITZ DIES". [[The Washington Post]].
10. Williams, Marjorie. (March 31, 2007). "The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Writings on Politics, Family, and Fate". PublicAffairs.
11. (1990-02-25). "CAFRITZ V. CAFRITZ". [[The Washington Post]].
12. (2016). "Maxwell Chaffetz Declassified FBI File". The Black Vault.
13. Cashman, Greer Fay. (July 14, 2016). "Grapevine: A British diplomat in Mea She'arim". [[The Jerusalem Post]].
14. Janega, James. (January 16, 2001). "HAMMOND CHAFFETZ, ATTORNEY, FUNDRAISER". [[The Chicago Tribune]].
15. Johnston, David Cay. (January 17, 2001). "H. E. Chaffetz, 93, Lawyer On Antitrust and Price Fixing". [[The New York Times]].