Tragedy at 18th and Columbia 18th street and columbia road nw
before there was “ adams morgan, ” this crossroads lent the neighborhood its name:“ 18 th and Columbia.”Here you could catch a streetcar to just about anywhere and buy nearly anything. But back in 1922, a tragedy unfolded at 18 th and Columbia.On January 28 the roof of Harry Crandall’s Knickerbocker Theater,on its southwest corner,collapsed under the weight of a 28 -inch snowfall, killing 98 and injuring hundreds more. Soon after,the city passed new building codes. Crandall then built the Ambassador Theater on the same spot.Once that theater lost audiences to tele- vision,it was sold for redevelopment.It briefly hosted rock concerts.The night before the October 1967 March on the Pentagon,an anti-war rally took place with poet Robert Lowell,novelist Norman Mailer,and others. When the Ambassador was razed in 1970 ,a battle ensued over its lot.Drawing on a 20 -year tradition of community organizing,residents defeated plans for a gas station.In 1978 Perpetual Savings and Loan won the spot,agreeing to hire a bilingual staff,offer special loans to area residents,and create a plaza for a farmers’market. The business district that began developing in the 1910 s included an early Peoples Drug Store where McDonald’s is in 2005 . In 1948 Charles Lazarus opened what would be the first Toys ‘R’ Us in his father’s bike shop at 2461 18 th Street.Herbert Haft founded Dart Drug at 1801 Columbia Road in 1954 . Lazarus and Haft,pioneers of high-volume dis- counting,oversaw phenomenal business expansion through the 1990 s.
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