MacArthur Theater : This theater, located in the Palisades neighborhood in northwest DC, was built in 1945 and opened the next year.

2016-02-09T20:24:59+00:00

The MacArthur Theater is a large neighborhood movie house, characteristic of the theaters that were once prominent in the city's outlying commercial centers. Such places of popular entertainment, convenient by car and removed from downtown congestion, help to illustrate the city's social history and suburban expansion. For 50 years, from 1946 until the 1990s, the building was operated as a movie house, hosting the world premiere of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.

Built at the close of World War II, the MacArthur typifies the Moderne style of architecture. It is the work of John J. Zink, noted for his technical innovations and the design of more than 200 motion picture theaters throughout the Mid-Atlantic states, and it reflects the influence of modernism in both design and materials. The one-story building is irregular in shape and features a curved aluminum marquee, a ramped terrazzo floor, and frameless glass doors that allow an open flow from the sidewalk to the marble-paneled lobby. No longer a theater, the building has been converted to other retail use.

DC Inventory: June 26, 1997

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Western Union Telegraph Company (Washington Radio Terminal): This seventy-three-foot-tall octagonal transmission tower was built from 1945 to 1947 near the city’s highest point of elevation.

2015-09-01T21:11:38+00:00

The Western Union Telegraph Company Tenley Radio Terminal is a landmark in engineering history. Built between 1945 and 1947, it served as a transmission and receiving station in an experimental radio relay triangle connecting New York, Philadelphia, DC, and Pittsburgh, inaugurating the first use of microwave radio for commercial communications. The system was an experimental one, intended to replace a century-old wire telegraphy network, and it continued in use for national security communications during the Cold War. Designed by DC architect Leon Chatelain Jr. (1902-1979), the terminal is an early and rare example of an architect-designed transmission tower. Western Union used the tower as an icon for modern communications systems in its advertising. The building’s design owes something to lingering Art Deco and Moderne styles of the 1940s and 1950s, but its restraint of detail suggests its utilitarian nature. The installation also includes a two-level poured-in-place concrete battery and engine room. DC Inventory: May 22, 2008National Register: May 21, 2004

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DC Historic Sites

MacArthur Theater : This theater, located in the Palisades neighborhood in northwest DC, was built in 1945 and opened the next year.

Western Union Telegraph Company (Washington Radio Terminal): This seventy-three-foot-tall octagonal transmission tower was built from 1945 to 1947 near the city’s highest point of elevation.