The Beatles Were Here
25 01 2008The Uline Arena on M Street NE near Union Station is one of those historic landmark buildings that proves the distinction is not all about looks. Once called the Washington Coliseum, the building was built using a now-rare thin concrete construction method to build arched supports, however that’s not the reason for the designation either.
It’s all about a little group called the Beatles. Their first North American concert was performed February 11, 1964 in the building, which unfortunately is now closed to public. Would this building have earned Historic Landmark Status if it didn’t hold such a special place in music history? It’s hard to say, but hopefully in the future it will be better utilized than it is now.
In the city of museums, wouldn’t a Beatles museum be a great use of the space? Hey we can dream!
isn’t jemal teaming up with the property owner across the street to create a nighlife district?
i know layman wanted it to have some ‘music’ related purpose, and maybe it still will.
i personally would like to see a whole foods in there!
wow, thats really interesting, and such a cool pic (though it is a little creepy)! …like the site, i’ll be back!
Whole Foods would be great, but a Beatles Museum would be even better!
We have some nice new Groceries in the area after all! but the entire US doesn’t have a Beatles Museum!
sorry to disagree.
that space is adjacent to NY metro station (think “economy” of the NE quadrant). the volume of the area does not lend itself to be a museum of any kind.
it needs to be utilized. i can’t enumerate the number of places in dc that have gone from one extreme to another. just name the place “Beatles”, throw up a few historic reminders, and go on with developing the place in accordance with the economy.
there will never be a museum there. never.
mark my words.
a reference to the beats, yes, but that’s about it.
priorities in this part of DC are a bit different than the rest of dc, or tourists from MD, VA, and the rest of america.
but hey, why not dream? no?
Yeah, gotta agree with poo poo here. I walk past that building twice everyday and its become a complete eyesore. So the Beattles played there once … that’s great, but irrelevant in most people’s daily lives who live in the neighborhood. Right now it’s a daily car park (at least your cars are inside the old arena). Before that, it was a trash transfer station for the area. Ahhh … good times with all the trash and trash trucks rumbling through the local streets.
I saw some plans once to preserve the building but build something on top of it. The design looked kinda funky (not too sure), but at least the space was utilized and the “historic” building was saved.
Personally I’d love to see a Whole Foods there. That would be the best thing since sliced bread. And if there was some residential added above the building, then that would be sliced bread plus PBJ.
isn’t there going to be a harris teeter about 2 blocks from there?
how about a home for the DC roller girls?
http://www.dcrollergirls.com/
HT has signed a letter of intent, but we all know how that goes. it means very little. they haven’t even broken ground on the site. but yeah, hopefully they’ll follow through.
i was only half kidding about the whole foods.
as long as it’s not a strip club, i’ll probably be on board.
i can’t wait to hear what jemal has in store for the spot….
Yeah Roller Girls! I live nearby and would be a regular if they also added beer and popcorn.
When I was a kid the Washington Coliseum was where you went to see shows that weren’t big enough for the DC Armory and music show too big for the Howard Theater. I remember seeing the Harlem Globetrotters there. There were also roller derby and pro wrestling events and there was public roller/ice rink there, too, I think. I know many will disagree with me, but if a grocery goes up in that space I hope it doesn’t drive the nearby DC Farmers Market away. Where else can I find smoked turkey butts and liver pudding?
As for a Beatles museum, I say build it in the UK.
[…] It’s time once again to take a look into the DCMetrocentric Mailbag! We received this inquiry about the historic Uline arena in Northeast which was home to the first Beatles concert in North America… […]