Fahrney's Pens

Fahrney's opened in Washington, D.C. in 1929 as a fountain pen repair shop, founded by Earl Fahrney at a moment — the eve of the Depression — when fixing a good pen was often the more sensible choice over buying a new one. The repair trade sustained the business through its early years before Fahrney expanded into selling new writing instruments, including what the shop's own history calls the then-"revolutionary" ballpoint pen. In 1950 the shop moved into the Willard Hotel on F Street, and took on the tagline it still uses today, "The Write Place."

Nearly a century later, Fahrney's is still on F Street NW, now inside the Willard InterContinental, a few blocks from the White House and the National Mall — one of the few American pen shops that can claim continuous operation, repair bench included, since before the Second World War. The current shop describes its selection as one of the country's largest for fine writing instruments, inks, paper, and accessories, with staff trained to help match a pen to a hand rather than simply ring up whatever is popular that season.

That repair-shop origin still shapes the business: a pen bought elsewhere can be brought in for service, and the shop's own marketing leans on "90-plus years of expert service" rather than any single house brand, because Fahrney's has always been a specialist retailer and repairer first, not a manufacturer.