So happy to have stumbled across this. John and Constantine were the brothers of my husband's grandmother, Sophie Janes. They were Greek immigrants from Karystos, Evia, Greece. Sophie worked in the candy store after coming to America, before marrying and moving with her husband to St Petersburg, Florida.

I would be very interested in any other information about the Janes brothers or the candy store.

Apparently, the first recorded Chinese restaurant in North America was Macao and Woosung, founded in 1849. The history of the Chinese Restaurant in the US was pretty much mirrored in Canada where Chinese men came to work on the building of the trans-Canada railway. Men who had arrived to work on the railways and unable to find employment due to racism, often went on to cook in mining and logging camps, setting up their own restaurants or laundries.

Chinese restaurants or cafes were often the first and only restaurant in most small Canadian towns, especially in the prairies. They generally served typical Canadian dishes. In many cases, they were the life and soul of small Canadian towns.

http://www.uglychinesecanadian.com/?p=1623

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Washington Post, May 15, 1922

The Mandarin

Chinese and American Restaurant

514 Ninth St. N.W.

will be reopened, Thursday, March 16, 1922, under new management. The best of service and the best of Chinese and American dishes will be our Motto.

The Mandarin Restaurant Co.

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Additional appearances of Chinese restaurants on Shorpy:

Chinese Delmonico, NYC, 1910.

The Canton Pagoda, Washington D.C., 1920.

Look all the way to the right, the window says "Mandarin Chinese Restaurant". I'm just too excited to see that there were Chinese restaurants back in those days.

[Also here, in 1912. "Chop Suey." - Dave]

Peeking through the acanthus, upper left.

The decoration in the window, the giant candy cane that the little girl is holding as well as the ones in the window, what appears to be fir boughs in the window, and the way the people walking by are dressed would suggest that this is sometime around Christmas.

When I was a small lad, we use to get triple dips at the ice cream store for 15 cents. I have never seen another cone like those. The three dips were side by side. That was in Cushing, Oklahoma, in the early forties.

I wonder if the candy display in the window was an elaborate prop. There doesn't appear to be refrigeration, and that mass of candy would be a melty mess by early afternoon.

[It's December. - Dave]

I wish we could hurry and get there for the 19 cents per pound sale! Those must have been heavenly!

Of course, the pennies that they cost per pound were a lot of money, in 1924. It reminds me of hearing my dad tell of getting a nice big ice cream cone for 3 cents, during the 1930s. But, before I could spend much time being impressed, he added that he had to work hard for that 3 cents!

By the way, Bob, I remember getting ice cream for 5 cents a scoop during the early 60s, at High's ice cream shop in Virginia. I never saw a cone made for three scoops side by side, but they had some that held two scoops side by side. I got triple dips by having them put another on top, in between the two on the bottom. By the late 60s, High's was charging 10 cents a scoop, which was still a great deal!

Janes Candy was before my time (my mother was about as old as that child in 1924). But I remember well Lansburgh. It was one of my mother's favorite department stores, along with Woodward & Lothrop, Hechts, Kanns and Garfinckels (all gone now). Lansburgh was one of the first old style department stores in the Washington area to fold - I think in the 70s or 80s. Back in the 50s and early 60s the trip from Fairfax to Lansburgh was a real trek. There were no "shopping malls" then.

[The sign in our photo is on the Lansburgh furniture store -- two blocks away from the Lansburgh department store. - Dave]

LUNCHEONETTE !

I'll bet the tough looking gent inside the door is the feisty Constantine Janes who got into it with the cop! The kindly John Janes must be the one who gave that amazing candy cane to the little kid. No wonder the partnership broke up!

Jess & Frank James? I don't think so.

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Washington Post, December 6, 1913.

Candy

Schools, Churches, Hospitals, and all institutions contemplating Christmas entertainments. Allow us to furnish your Christmas Candies, Favors, and Novelties. We extend the most liberal concessions to all institutions.

Janes Brothers

514 Ninth St. N. W.
Phone Main 3420.

We make our own candies and guarantee them under the Pure Food Law.

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Washington Post, July 22, 1915.

District Court News

Constantine Janes was convicted in District branch of the police court yesterday on a charge of disorderly conduct. Janes runs a candy store in Ninth street between E and F streets northwest, and had some difficulty with a colored man, who claimed that Janes owed him money. Policeman T.J. Sullivan, of the First precinct, who made the arrest, said Janes swore at him and was disorderly when asked what the trouble was. The policeman testified that the employes of Janes took the defendant away from him on three occasions.

Judge Pugh said that "the policeman got himself into this trouble by going into the store. He had no right to enter into this matter, as it was a civil transaction between an employe and an employer." The court, however, though the defendant was guilty of disorderly conduct, but released him on his personal bond.

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Washington Post, Oct 18, 1915.

Pure Candy Sale

We have 1,000 pound boxes of our make. Absolutely pure and fresh.

Assorted Chocolates
Choclates and Bon Bons

Regular 30¢ a Pound Candies
Special for Today Only
per pound, 19¢.

Mail orders receive prompt attention. Visit our Light Lunch and Ice Cream Parlor.

Janes Brothers

514 9th St. N. W.

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Washington Post, Oct 23, 1917.

Special Notices

Notice is hereby given that the partnership hitherto existing between Constantine Janes and John Janes, under the firm name, Janes Brothers, which firm has conducted a confectionery business at No. 514 Ninth Street Northwest, Washington D.C., was dissolved by the mutual agreement on the 13th day of October, 1917, and Constantine Janes withdrew from said business.

All debts due to the partnership are to be paid to, and those due from the same discharged by, John Janes, at 514 Ninth Street Northwest, Washington D.C., where the business will be continued by said John Janes in his own name, he having purchased and succeeded to the interest of said Constantine Janes.

Constantine Janes,
John Janes.

I'll bet the dentists in that town did a thriving business.

I envy those people fortunate enough to have visited the Janes candy store. All those delicious chocolates were probably hand made with care and attention to detail. The fact that they are displaying boxes of chocolates in the front windows lets me know the picture was made in the cooler months of the year and that they had to be changed out frequently to preserve freshness and to maintain quality standards. One bad truffle and you lose repeat business.

Imagine having this much chocolate laid before you at only pennies per pound, not per piece like we've grown accustomed. I remember in the early sixties having candy weighed in front of you then getting the price. Sometimes they had to remove a little to make the allowance money fit the candy or to help control a child's sugar greed.

Having said that, the little girl with the "life-sized" peppermint cane had to be the envy of every other child she encountered. That had to be the Cadillac of candies and it did what chocolates couldn't do: it lasted all day and you still had candy even after the stretchy licorice was long gone.