The Knickerbocker Theatre

The cinema at 18th Street and Columbia Road whose roof collapsed under snow on January 28, 1922.

A large ornate cinema auditorium with rows of seats — October 1917 The auditorium of Crandall's Knickerbocker Theatre in October 1917, the month it opened.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F82- 10139 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

History

The Knickerbocker, a 1,700-seat cinema, opened in 1917. On the evening of January 28, 1922, after a blizzard that buried the city under more than two feet of snow, the weight on its flat roof brought it down onto the audience. Ninety-eight people were killed and 133 injured, the deadliest disaster in the city’s history. The snow-blocked streets delayed the fire engines.

The investigations blamed the roof’s design. Both the theatre’s architect, Reginald Geare, and its owner, Harry Crandall, later took their own lives, in 1927 and 1937.

What's there now

A new cinema, the Ambassador, was built in the shell of the Knickerbocker in 1923; it was demolished in 1969. A bank building on the corner, in Adams Morgan, was built in the shape of a theatre in its memory.

Then and now

The photographs of the collapse are among the most vivid in the National Photo Company’s files. The streets around the corner of 18th Street and Columbia Road are still lined with the rowhouses and apartment buildings of the time.

Photographs 6, oldest first

A brightly lit theater entrance at night with a crowd and motor cars outside — October 1917 Crowds queue under the blazing lights of the Knickerbocker Theatre on an October night in 1917.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F82- 10140 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Men in uniform among broken beams and rubble — 1922 Soldiers and rescue workers inside the ruined Knickerbocker Theatre, January 1922.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 17914 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Snow and debris beneath a theatre canopy with people working — January 28–29, 1922 Rescuers and wreckage under the Knickerbocker Theatre's canopy after the roof collapsed, January 1922.Date checked: The Library gives only 1922; the theatre's roof fell on the night of January 28, 1922, and the rescue went on into the next day.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 17913 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

High view of a crowd and streetcars in a snowy street beside a ruined theater — January 30, 1922 Crowds and stalled streetcars in the snow beside the Knickerbocker Theater after the roof collapse, January 30, 1922, seen from above the wrecked auditorium.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 17534 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A ruined interior full of broken beams and rubble seen from above — January 30, 1922 Looking down into the wreckage of the Knickerbocker Theatre, January 30, 1922.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 17534 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Nearby: Rock Creek Park and the Zoo · U Street and Shaw · Dupont Circle and the avenues · Griffith Stadium · The National Cathedral