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Remembering the 100th anniversary of Washington's Knickerbocker Theatre disaster
There was an article in DU about the Knickerbocker Theatre a few weeks ago in GD.
Fri Jan 7, 2022: Smithsonian Institute Archives: Knickerbocker Snowstorm Hits Washington, D.C
D.C., Md. & Va.
Perspective
Remembering the 100th anniversary of Washington’s Knickerbocker theater disaster
On Jan. 28, 1922, the roof collapsed at the Knickerbocker Theatre. A century later, the 98 people who died that day will be remembered at an outdoor ceremony at 18th Street and Columbia Road NW in Adams Morgan. (Library of Congress)
By John Kelly
Columnist
January 19, 2022 at 11:39 a.m. EST
In his sermon of March 19, 1922, the Rev. J.B. Hunley of Hanover Avenue Christian Church in Richmond, reflected upon a series of “sad tragedies” that had recently bedeviled the region: a hotel that burned, killing 12; an airship that crashed, killing 34; and a theater roof that collapsed, killing 98.
“God uses them as warnings,” Hunley said of the disasters, “but they go unheeded. Men go on with their work and their play; each one chases his favorite fantom as before. The dead are so soon forgotten.”
The hotel was the Hotel Lexington in Richmond. The airship was the U.S. Army’s Italian-built Roma, which crashed and burned near Norfolk. And the theater was the Knickerbocker, at the corner of 18th Street and Columbia Road NW in Washington. On Jan. 28, 1922 — after a blizzard had dumped more than two feet of snow on the city — the roof buckled, sending the ceiling crashing down and killing dozens of people who’d come to watch the silent comedy “Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford.”
Josh Gibson hopes the Knickerbocker’s dead won’t ever be forgotten. At 6 p.m. on Jan. 28 — the 100th anniversary of the tragedy — he and Kevin Ambrose, author of a book on the Knickerbocker disaster, will stand across from where the theater once stood and remember.
{snip}
Read more from John Kelly.
By John Kelly
John Kelly writes John Kelly's Washington, a daily look at Washington's less-famous side. Born in Washington, John started at The Post in 1989 as deputy editor in the Weekend section. Twitter https://twitter.com/JohnKelly
Perspective
Remembering the 100th anniversary of Washington’s Knickerbocker theater disaster
On Jan. 28, 1922, the roof collapsed at the Knickerbocker Theatre. A century later, the 98 people who died that day will be remembered at an outdoor ceremony at 18th Street and Columbia Road NW in Adams Morgan. (Library of Congress)
By John Kelly
Columnist
January 19, 2022 at 11:39 a.m. EST
CORRECTION
A previous version of this column incorrectly said the Hotel Lexington was in Rockbridge County, Va. It was in Richmond. The column has been corrected.
In his sermon of March 19, 1922, the Rev. J.B. Hunley of Hanover Avenue Christian Church in Richmond, reflected upon a series of “sad tragedies” that had recently bedeviled the region: a hotel that burned, killing 12; an airship that crashed, killing 34; and a theater roof that collapsed, killing 98.
“God uses them as warnings,” Hunley said of the disasters, “but they go unheeded. Men go on with their work and their play; each one chases his favorite fantom as before. The dead are so soon forgotten.”
The hotel was the Hotel Lexington in Richmond. The airship was the U.S. Army’s Italian-built Roma, which crashed and burned near Norfolk. And the theater was the Knickerbocker, at the corner of 18th Street and Columbia Road NW in Washington. On Jan. 28, 1922 — after a blizzard had dumped more than two feet of snow on the city — the roof buckled, sending the ceiling crashing down and killing dozens of people who’d come to watch the silent comedy “Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford.”
Josh Gibson hopes the Knickerbocker’s dead won’t ever be forgotten. At 6 p.m. on Jan. 28 — the 100th anniversary of the tragedy — he and Kevin Ambrose, author of a book on the Knickerbocker disaster, will stand across from where the theater once stood and remember.
{snip}
Read more from John Kelly.
By John Kelly
John Kelly writes John Kelly's Washington, a daily look at Washington's less-famous side. Born in Washington, John started at The Post in 1989 as deputy editor in the Weekend section. Twitter https://twitter.com/JohnKelly