A Magic Place 14th and t streets nw
louis armstrong and sarah vaughn were two of the nationally famous entertainers who played at a club at the northeast corner of 14 th and T Streets, once the popular Club Bali, also called the New Bali. In the memory of one former cus- tomer, it was “a magic place,” its rear garden lit with strings of lights in the summertime. Club Bali was one of many nightclubs that made the U Street area a mecca for music lovers from the jazz era of the 1920 s to the Motown sound of the 1960 s. The magic often continued late into the night, as name entertainers, winding down after formal engagements, played to intimate gatherings into the wee hours of the morning in the many tucked-away, after-hours clubs located throughout the neighborhood. Fourteenth Street was a place shared, uneasily, by black and white Washingtonians in segregated Washington. Black and white people owned, man- aged, and patronized stores on this important commercial corridor, which both connected and divided the mostly black community on the east from the mostly white community on the west. While the white-owned People’s Drug Store at the corner of 14 th and U refused to serve African Americans at the counter, most of the predomi- nantly black clubs such as the Bali welcomed whites, making the nightclub scene in Washington one of the city’s few integrated social settings. Both 14 th Street and U Street are once again venues for the arts and nightlife, as theaters, res- taurants, and clubs reuse this neighborhood’s historic buildings. Buildings that were once car showrooms are proving to be well suited to the needs of Washington’s innovative and thriving small theaters.
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