While I have yet to figure out a good business-themed post for Halloween, I did find this spooky 1910 advertisement for Café Republique at 15th and F NW Streets in Washington, D.C. which was not too far from the White House.
Café Republique opened in September 1910 and seems to have been a fairly nice place judging by what was used to build and furnish it. However, it didn’t seem to be open for long. In September of 1912 things weren’t looking good. Early that month, the company that operated it filed for bankruptcy and the contents of the restaurant were being auctioned off. But then it got a reprieve when almost all of the contents of the restaurant were bought and the restaurant was reopened. This explains why I saw advertisements as well as a reference to the restaurant in an article about a strike by waiters in October of 1912, a month after they supposedly closed. Unfortunately, it seems that this second reprieve was short lived, because by April of 1913 the contents of the restaurant were being auctioned off again. Despite the restaurant being open for just over two years, it appears to have left quite an impression given the number of articles I saw about meetings being held at the old Café Republique.