99 years ago today, in 1922, the roof at the Knickerbocker Theatre (at 18th Street & Columbia Road in Adams Morgan) collapsed under the weight of 28 inches of snow, killing 98 people. The Post article from 1922 is unbelievably haunting: http://wapo.st/2Tipqcz
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Blizzard of 1922: Knickerbocker Theater Disaster
71,204 views • Dec 19, 2009

Jeff Krulik
894 subscribers

Hand cranked newsreel footage (silent) of the Knickerbocker Theater disaster during the worst snowstorm in Washington DC history, January 27-28, 1922. I used this footage in my documentary TWENTY FIVE CENTS BEFORE NOON which aired on WETA in 1990

Knickerbocker storm

Formed: January 27, 1922
Dissipated: January 29, 1922

The Knickerbocker storm was a blizzard that occurred on January 27–28, 1922 in the upper South and middle Atlantic United States. The storm took its name from the resulting collapse of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C. shortly after 9 p.m. on January 28 which killed 98 people and injured 133.

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Knickerbocker Theatre (Washington, D.C.)


The Knickerbocker Theatre in October, 1917

Location: 18th Street, and Columbia Road Northwest, Washington, D.C., United States
Coordinates: 38.92225°N 77.042806°W
Completed: 1917
Destroyed: 1922
Design and construction
Architect: Reginald Geare

The Knickerbocker Theatre was a Washington, D.C., United States, movie theater located at 18th Street and Columbia Road in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. It collapsed on January 28, 1922 under the weight of snow from a two-day blizzard that was later dubbed the Knickerbocker Storm. The theater was showing Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford at the time of the collapse, which killed 98 patrons and injured 133 more. The disaster ranks as one of the worst in Washington, D.C., history. Former Congressman Andrew Jackson Barchfeld and a number of prominent political and business leaders were among those killed in the theater. The theater's architect, Reginald Geare, and owner, Harry Crandall, later committed suicide, in 1927 and 1937, respectively.

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