After emigrating from Russia, Cafritz's family moved to Washington and opened a grocery store. Young Morris rose at 4:30 a.m. to pick up fish and produce for his father before heading off to school. After school he sold the Evening Star and helped out in the family store.

In his early twenties, he borrowed $1,400 from his father to buy a wholesale coal yard in Southeast DC. A few years later, he sold the coal yard and bought a saloon across from the washington Navy Yard. Even then he understood the importance of location.

Cafritz caught the real-estate bug in 1921. His first major project was Petworth, a development in DC of "lifetime homes" priced at $8,950 - $1 down and $75 a month. Later he built the Ambassador Hotel, the Westchester Apartments, and a series of apartment buildings in Northwest DC that spelled out his name - from the Cromwell to the Zellwood. In the early 1950's, he bought land along what would become the booming Connecticut Avenue corridor.

All told, Cafritz built some 10,000 houses, more than 85 apartment buildings and a dozen office buildings before he died in 1964, leaving a $66 million estate. Much of his fortune was devoted to the city he loved. The Cafritz Foundation, whiCh he established in 1948, is now the largest supporter of area organizations and causes.

He played as hard as he worked. When the Cafritz Company won back-to-back championships in the Washington Real Estate Board softball league, Morris Cafritz was the star pitcher. It was a position he was born to play.