For over 100 years, the American Theater (also known more commonly as the Sylvan Theater) operated as an entertainment hub and community anchor in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of DC. Designed by prominent local architect Nicholas T. Haller, the Neo-Classical Revival style building is located adjacent to the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and First Street NW.

The American Theater opened in 1914 in response to national and local desires for spaces built intentionally for viewing films. The motion picture business had grown immensely since the first theater in the District opened in a former storefront in 1906. In the years between 1909 and 1914, fifty-eight new movie theaters opened in the nation’s capital.

In 1930, the company rebranded as the Sylvan Theater, named for manager Sylvan V. Dietz, a prominent local deeply connected to the decade’s film scene. Outside of providing a space for films, the theater hosted local community activities (Boy Scouts events, fundraisers, civic rallies, etc.) from its earliest days.

The Sylvan survived the local decline of movie theater popularity in the 1950s, but closed in 1965 due to a succession of untenable mortgages. The property was sold at bankruptcy auctions in 1967 and 1969 before the renovation of the space by the Back Alley Theater (BAT). Begun in a Capitol Hill garage and literal alleyway, the BAT offered theater programs and educational workshops in playwriting for audience members. Established in 1967, the BAT formed in response to the complete lack of a suitable Black theater program or physical location. With the help of a $5,000 grant from the Institute for Policy Studies, the Back Alley Theater Company renovated the run-down Sylvan theater and offered its first production in 1971.

While the Sylvan had been built for the explicit purpose of viewing films, BAT members reimagined the space, breaking down barriers between audience and performers through the construction of a rough-hewn stage close to seated attendees. The energy was entirely unique and described as such:

“The sound of gospel music fills the air, and from that point on, the audience is as active as any sanctified church congregation during a revival meeting. Foot-patting and hand clapping, this black audience shows its appreciation by participating…It has been said that to be successful black theatre must encompass all the ‘pleasure and passion’ of the church.”

The BAT left the Sylvan by 1973, but the influence it had on the surrounding community was enormous. Research indicates that the BAT’s productions may well have been some of the earliest stage shows in DC to showcase cultural expressions of Black pride that accompanied the political empowerment of the African American community in the 1960s and 1970s. The Back Alley Theater was Washington’s first African American theater company that possessed its own commercial theater, and operated it as a center of community pride and cultural regeneration.

After the BAT’s departure, the Sylvan Theater became a rental space once more. A series of businesses have occupied the building and it continues to hold various stores and restaurants inside its walls today.

DC Inventory: April 25, 2019

Within Bloomingdale Historic District

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Emerald Street NE, or Emerson Street prior to 1950, is a one-block-long "minor" residential street located between 13th and 14th and E and F Streets NE at the center of Square 1029 in east Capitol Hill. The street is lined with several intact and attached Queen Anne-style rowhouses built between 1892 and 1896.

For the first century of Washington, DC’s history, the square remained undeveloped like many others around it. In 1891, real estate speculators, William Mayse (1836-1911) and Louis D. Wine (1838-1905), purchsed the land and began the re-subdivision of the square. By choosing an undeveloped square, Mayse and Wine were free to re-imagine its development potential in accordance with new building regulations and trends, without the inconvenience and expense of having to remove existing buildings, or re-lay existing streets and alleyways. During this period, businessmen invested in real estate as the demand grew for middle-class housing to accommadate the city's growing population and government workforce.

By 1892, the new subdivision provided 170 narrow, rowhouse-sized urban lots. Within months of the subdivision's completion, architect and builder George P. Newton (1865-1945) entered the speculative building market. Newton bought dozens of lots on Square 1029 and began construction of a series of rowhouses, eventually building sixty-two of the seventy-five houses on Emerald Street and twenty-seven more on E and F Streets. Newton worked with architect Nicolas T. Haller (1855 -1917) on some of his Emerald Street buildings, while on others, Newton acted as both owner and architect. Haller, a late-nineteenth to early-twentieth-century architect, is known for his eclectic designs that ranged from ornamental high Victorian buildings to more classical building forms and treatments. On Emerald Street, Haller’s designs follow the standard pattern for the street with ornamentation limited to rusticated stone window lintels and corbelled brick cornices. Until the 1940s, the modest-sized single-family dwellings of Emerald Street attracted white, middle-class residents where the head of household held an array of professions from grocery clerk to teacher, policeman, milliner and more.

By 1945, several African Americans had made their home on Emerald Street. As "white flight" took hold of the city, some white tenants became absentee landlords. By the 1950s, Emerald Street suffered from disinvestment, a trend that continued for years, exacerbated by the 1968 riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The H Street Urban Renewal Area, created to revitalize riot-damaged areas of the city, included Emerald Street and ultimately led to the rehabilitation, rather than removal, of the street’s nineteenth-century buildings.

DC Inventory: May 25, 2017

National Register: September 5, 2017

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The LeDroit Block was built after the completion of the large-scale municipal improvements undertaken by the Board of Public Works ibetween 1871 and 1874. It illustrates the renewed civic aspirations of the post-Civil War era with rich, animated facades that introduce a congenial human scale that enhances the monumentality of the L'Enfant Plan and the nearby General Post Office and Old Patent Office. The block includes one of the city's oldest office buildings and work by noted local architects; the buildings date from 1875 to 1892.

DC Inventory: August 28, 1973 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

National Register: April 2, 1974

Within Downtown Historic District and Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site

LeDroit Building (800-10 F Street)

This commercial office building was erected in 1875 by A.L. Barber & Co., builders of the suburban LeDroit Park. The building is a rare example of pre-elevator office building design and is a major work of noted local architect James McGill, who held an office in the building until 1882. Located on a corner site, the LeDroit Building features three stories with a raised basement of storefronts, as well as three main entrances. As a free Italianate adaptation of classical detail, the LeDroit Building has a bracketed cornice with alternating triangular and curved pediments, and applied lettering.

812 F Street

This is a commercial row building with the stories, a pressed brick facade, and a bracketed and pedimented cornice. The building was built 1875, probably by architect James McGill, and was occupied in 1877 by stationer J. Bradley Adams, a former tenant of the LeDroit Building.

Adams Building (814-16 F Street)

This is a commercial row building erected in 1878 by stationer J. Bradley Adams. It was used as store by Adams until 1888 and a residence until 1892. Like other buildings on the block, it was likely designed by James McGill.

818 F Street

Owner J. Bradley Adams erected this three-story commercial row building, possibly designed by James McGill, in 1881.

Warder Building (527 9th Street)

This early elevator building was erected in 1892 by B.H. Warder, a wealthy Ohio manufacturer of farm implements, who moved to Washington to invest in real estate. He intended to use the building as offices, apartments, and stores. The Warder Building was designed by architect Nicholas T. Haller and built in 1892. The building housed Haller's office in addition to those of several patent agents, labor unions, and the DC Communist Party during the 1940s.

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In 1896, the Luzon's presence in D.C. was evidence of further change in housing trends in the city. While Washingtonians remained hesitant towards apartment living for many reasons, the growing presence of apartment buildings made it clear that for many middle-class families, the affordability of an apartment could attract tenants, despite the concerns of other residents. The Luzon, however, also featured commercial space in its design, making it a multi-purpose building that allowed residents and non-residents alike to utilize it.

Built without any amenities available, the Luzon optimized its functional space over aesthetics in order to accommodate its middle-class residents. However, builder Nicholas T. Haller and architect John H. Nolan did incorporate Romanesque Revival elements to enhance the aesthetic value. The commercial space within the building changed over the years, with its storefronts including a drug store, grocery store, florist's shop, a restaurant, and then a liquor store. Even with the changes in the commercial space, the Luzon continues to stand as one of the earliest examples of changing housing needs as more people moved into the city. DC Inventory: September 19, 1990National Register: September 7, 1994

This site is a stop on the D.C. Apartment Buildings tour as an example of a Commercial-Residential apartment building.

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