Amusement Palace 14TH and KENYON STREETS NW
The intersection o f 1 4th Street and Park Road has been the center of community life since at least 1871 , when the neighborhood was called Mount Pleasant and storekeeper George Emery made his living on the northwest corner. Emery’s emporium, the first on upper 1 4th Street, marked the end of the line for the horse-drawn omnibus (coach) that carried residents to and from down-town.“Its stock ranged all the way from mowing machines to dry goods,” wrote Emery’s son Fred. In 1892 the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company began running electric streetcars up 1 4th Street to Park Road, and built a Romanesque car barn on the west side of 14th. After the line was extended in 1 9 0 7, investors, including gramophone inventor and neighbor Emile Berliner, transformed the car barn into the Arcade, a combination market and amusement park. Best known for its street-level vendor stalls, the Arcade over time boasted a movie theater, sports arena, bowling alleys, skating rink, and dance hall upstairs, not to mention carnival fun in the Japanese Maze and the House of Trouble. “The big Arcade building was crowded from end to end with one of the happiest throngs imaginable,” wrote the Washington Post about opening night. In November 1 9 52 the newly organized American Basketball Association inducted DC’s Palace Five. The Five (also called the “Laundrymen” for their first sponsor, Palace Laundry) played their first home-court, Big League game at the Arcade. Some 2,500 fans watched them beat the Brooklyn Five, 1 8 to 1 7.
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator