14 Facts About Morris Cafritz

Morris Cafritz was born to Jewish parents, Nathan and Anna Morris Cafritz, in the Russian Empire.

Morris Cafritz scouted the Maine Avenue Fish Market for fish for the store and sold newspapers on 15th Street, near the United States Department of the Treasury.

Morris 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.

Morris Cafritz developed the Greenwich Forest neighborhood in Bethesda, Maryland.

Morris Cafritz built the now-demolished Ambassador Hotel, at 14th and K Street.

In 1949, he built the Morris Cafritz Building, at 1625 Eye Street.

Morris Cafritz developed several office buildings along K Street, including 1725 K, 1725 I, and 1735 I Streets.

Morris Cafritz used racially restrictive covenants to exclude African Americans and other racial minorities during his career.

Morris Cafritz is buried in the Washington Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, Washington, DC.

Morris Cafritz raised $250,000 to build the Washington, DC Jewish Community Center, of which he was a charter member and president.

The Morris Cafritz Foundation is one of the top 100 Private Family Foundations in the US It gives annual charitable grants of $20 million to nonprofit organizations in the Washington, DC area.

In July 1929, Morris Cafritz married Gwendolyn Detre de Surany, twenty years his junior.

Morris Cafritz 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.

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