The Rotonda McLean: Tysons Corner’s Original Condo Island
Five circular towers, 1,168 condominiums, and the man who built the Watergate built them too. The story of The Rotonda in McLean.
1980s
The 1980s were a tale of two Washingtons. The corridors of power hummed with Reagan-era confidence, while the crack epidemic devastated neighborhoods across the city. Mayor Marion Barry dominated local politics throughout the decade, and the question of what kind of city DC would become hung over every block.
The Crazy Horse: The Wild Life of 3259 M Street, Georgetown
Walk into the Everlane store at 3259 M Street NW today, all blond wood and folded denim, and you are standing in what used to be the rowdiest room in Georgetown. For about a quarter of a century, this three-story building was the Crazy Horse, a beer-and-boogie nightclub the neighborhood spent years trying to shut … Read more
Commander Salamander and the Many Lives of 1420 Wisconsin Avenue
Before Commander Salamander made Georgetown punk, 1420 Wisconsin Avenue was a 1909 store and a quiet antique shop. The wild history of one storefront.
Erol’s Video Club: The DC Empire Before Blockbuster
Before Blockbuster, the DC area had Erol’s Video Club. Turkish immigrant Erol Onaran arrived in 1960 with $16, opened a Georgetown TV shop in 1963, started renting tapes in 1980, and built the largest privately owned video chain in America before selling to Blockbuster for $40 million in 1990.
The Bayou DC: 45 Years Under the Whitehurst Freeway
Forty-five years of Georgetown’s loudest room. The Bayou opened in 1953, closed in 1998, and put U2, Dave Matthews, and a whole DC scene through its doors.
The Original 9:30 Club: F Street’s 1888 Atlantic Building
Inside the 1888 Atlantic Building at 930 F Street: the cast-iron columns Bad Brains leaned against and the eighth floor that founded the National Zoo.
Army and Navy Club: 140 Years at 17th and I in DC
The Army and Navy Club has held the corner of 17th and I Streets NW since 1891, in a building that opened in 1912. In 1987 Shalom Baranes gutted everything behind that facade. The facade survived. Almost nothing else did.
The Night Benny’s Died: How 1980s Developers Erased D.C.’s Red-Light District
In the 1950s, the top entertainers in the country performed on 14th Street NW. By the early 1980s, it was known as Washington’s “combat zone,” lined with topless bars and adult bookstores. By 1986, it was rubble. What happened in between reveals how gentrification works when moral crusades and economic interests perfectly align.
Air Florida Flight 90 Tragedy: Blizzard, Heroism, and the Potomac’s Icy Waters
Explore the harrowing tale of Air Florida Flight 90’s crash into the Potomac River during Washington D.C.’s 1982 blizzard. Uncover stories of tragedy, remarkable heroism, and the city’s struggle amidst a day of unparalleled despair.