I know this isn’t much for many of you who live in the snow belts of our country, but the 20 to 30 inch snowfall predicted for the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia is a paralyzing experience here. Schools closed well before the first flakes began falling.
From the NOAA photo library.
The film above is of the disaster that came from a record Washington, DC snowfall on January 28, 1922. The 28-inches that fell caused the collapse of the roof of the Knickernocker Theater located at 18th Street and Columbia Road, NW. The collapse killed 98 people and injured 133.
My friend Jeff Krulik, a filmaker in Washington, unearthed the film above and posted it to YouTube during the December 19 storm (and I forgot to use it). Thanks to Jeff who used this hand-cranked newsreel footage in his 1988 documentary Twenty-five Cents Before Noon, a look at DC’s old movie palaces.
The collapse of the snow packed flat roof of the 5-year-old theater came on the night the comedy Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford was the feature film.
Shortly before 9:00 p.m., the Knickerbocker Theatre’s orchestra was playing for intermission. The lights had dimmed and the people were returning to their seats. Suddenly, a loud hissing noise filled the room. The ceiling, weighed down from the snow, had begun to split apart down the middle. The few people who had noticed the splitting ceiling dove under their seats or ran for the door. Within seconds, the entire roof started to fall towards the crowd. As the roof came down, it collapsed the theater’s cement balcony and pulled down portions of the theater’s brick wall. Concrete, bricks and metal crashed to the ground, burying dozens of people
The theater was owned by Harry Crandall and the architect was Reginald W. Geare. Here are some details on the cause of the collapse from the site Greater Greater Washington.
The subsequent investigation determined that the contractor had inserted the steel beams supprting the roof only 2 inches into the walls rather than the 8 inches Geare had specified, and Geare and Crandall were found innocent of any wrong doing.
The theater was rebuilt in 1927 as the Ambassador. That building was torn down in 1969.
An interesting note from former College Park VFD Chief Ty Dickerson (currently chief of Virginia’s Lexington Fire-Rescue Department).
Salvaged timbers from the Knickerbocker were used to build the Byrd Mansion in College Park, home to University of Maryland President Curly Byrd. In about 2003, during a snowstorm that house suffered a serious fire and was subsequently rebuilt.
