The Uptown Theater is prominently located along Connecticut Avenue NW in the Cleveland Park Historic District. Designed by John J. Zink – a notable and prolific movie theater architect from Baltimore – the theater’s Art Deco/Moderne design is composed of geometric motifs, buff brick and limestone cladding, and an ornamental metal marquee. With its tripartite composition, the Uptown is similar in style to Zink’s other nearby design, the former MacArthur Theater.
This particular Art Moderne style could be described as “Waterfall Moderne.” Additionally, the theater is part of a Moderne façade that extends along the west side of Connecticut Avenue, between Newark and Ordway streets. The Uptown’s façade has received very few physical alterations, while the interior has been remodeled over the decades and has lost much of its historic integrity.
The Uptown was one of many movie theaters that opened in Washington during the 20th century – with the first, the Star Theatre at 401 D Street NW, dating to 1906. Soon, theaters were being constructed in Downtown Washington – along 9th and F streets NW – and later, throughout the city’s neighborhoods. At the time, Harry Crandall was particularly noteworthy in shaping Washington’s movie theater industry. His Metropolitan (1918) was widely-popular. In 1922, his Knickerbocker Theater was the site of an infamous event. That year, snowpack led to the roof collapsing and the death of 98 attendees.
In his rush to construct theaters, Crandall bought the site that would become the Uptown. However, due to the Great Depression, Crandall’s plan for the site never materialized, and he would soon be eclipsed by Warner Brothers, which purchased the land in 1933. Warner Brothers opened the Penn Theater in Capitol Hill in 1935, followed by the Uptown in 1936. Both were designed in a Moderne style.
With 1300-seats and air conditioning, the first film to screen at the Uptown was Cain and Mabel on October 29, 1936. Following its opening, the Uptown quickly became a popular entertainment destination. Not only was the theater an important place for the Cleveland Park community, but it soon became a destination for residents throughout the District and the metropolitan area. The Uptown’s opening coincided with Connecticut Avenue’s transition from a streetcar thoroughfare to a major arterial serving automobiles and buses – thanks, in part, to the modern, Art Deco style Klingle Valley Bridge, which first started carrying vehicular traffic in 1931. The theater opened six-years after the nearby Park and Shop. The Park and Shop has since been recognized as a significant milestone in shopping center development.
In 1957, the Uptown started screening first-run pictures. Just one-year prior, the theater was upgraded with Todd-AO technology, and by 1962, Cinerama was added. Starting in the late 1960s, the theater was known for screening blockbuster films, including the world premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, Star Wars in 1977 (one of a limited number of theaters across the country to show the film), and the world premiere of Jurassic Park in 1993, amongst other films. Following ownership by Cineplex Odeon, Loew’s Theatres, and AMC, the theater closed its doors in early 2020.
The red neon sign at the Uptown is particularly well-known. Thanks to community activism in 2017, the sign was saved from being removed and replaced. Instead of full removal of the iconic lettering, the sign was modernized with LED technology.
DC Inventory: May 26, 2022
National Register: December 15, 2022
]]>Designed by noted theater designer John Jacob Zink in the Art Deco Style, the Atlas Theater and Shops were an iconic part of the H Street NE Corridor for 30 years. The building is identifiable through its Art Deco elements, such as zigzag ornamentation on the steel and glass marquee and a vertically aligned neon sign.
Constructed in 1938, the Atlas Theater constituted a gateway to the magical realms of Hollywood movies, and offered daily matinee and evening performances. The surrounding shops contributed to the thriving commercial center of H Street NE, and streetcar lines brought new customers as transportation became more accessible throughout the city in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1968, the riots that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination devastated H Street’s thriving businesses, including the Atlas. Despite offering movies on the weekends, the theater closed in 1976 and stayed vacant until renovations in 2004. The surrounding shops remained in business until the 1990s. Following rehabilitation of the space in the early 2000s, the storefront space reopened to once again serve the community.
The Atlas Theater is now home to the Atlas Performing Arts Center, a non-profit that provides performance space, theater events, and arts education on H Street.
DC Inventory: October 24, 2002
National Register: November 10, 2010
]]>Designed by architect John J. Zink, K-B Theatres opened the Senator Theater on February 19, 1942 with 946 available seats. The first film shown in the communal space was Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion. The auditorium had large murals with classical scenes.
When the Senator Theater closed in 1989, it had 880 seats and the second-largest movie screen in Washington D.C. — the title for largest screen was held by the Uptown Theater. The District of Columbia Historic Preservation Board recommended that the Senator be designated as an historic landmark, but facing the owner's opposition, the designation excluded the auditorium.
After much controversy, tragically, the auditorium was demolished in 1990, leaving only the facade and lobby building. It now stands as a large and depressing tombstone that tells of a theater's fate.
DC Inventory: September 19, 1990
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