The fluttering awnings and arched windows give an almost Middle-Eastern bazaar quality to this shot.

So if this is 1921 and 15th and F NW, then this building must be the reconfigured Rhodes Tavern, where the British soldiers drank after burning the White House. (The lamp right above the doorway must be the same lamp in the upper corner of this shot, taken in the opposite direction, about the same time: https://www.shorpy.com/node/4177). As further confirmation, the arrangement of the bricks above the upper story window match those in the drawing of the building on the memorial marker on the current spot: http://flickr.com/photos/65193799@N00/89418033.

This looks like the building that was Rhodes Tavern on the NE corner of 15th and F. It was built in the early 18th century and was demolished in the 1980s. There is a plaque on the building now.

Doesn't the writing along the bottom say "Afflecks Drugs, 15th & F"?

Has anyone noticed the shadow of the man at the right with folded papers in his arm seems to include the movement of a crutch? Possibly a news seller who is a vet of the Great War?

[Maybe that's his other crutch leaning against the doorway. - Dave]

Note the movie poster to the right side of photo: "Way Down East" began a one week run at the Garrick on July 11th, 1921. That's the "when", figuring out the "where" is a bit trickier. The original Affleck's Drug Store (proprietor Phillip J. Affleck, Jr) was located at 1429 Pennsylvania Ave. An advertisement in 1914 lists 3 locations: 904 G st NW, 15th and F sts NW, 9th and D sts NW. A 1917 article refers to an additional branch at 14th and U NW. Given the advertisements for sight-seeing cars I'm more inclined to think this location is downtown where tourists would congregate rather than up on U street.

On the far right is a poster advertising the silent film "Way Down East" released 9-3-20 - with Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess, directed by D W Griffith. Interesting backstory and comments at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0011841/. The movie was remade with the same title in 1935, with Henry Fonda, Spring Byington, Margaret Hamilton and other familiar names

Why aren't the townspeople flocking to this sale to get their one-third-off bathing caps?

Maybe they are all next door, at the hat cleaners.

Peoples Drug, buying out a mom-and-pop pharmacy. A foreshadowing of today's CVS and Walgreens expansion.