Historic Tivoli Theatre NW
5 03 2008We all know that other bit of development in Columbia Heights has been getting all the attention recently, but right across 14th street the historic Tivoli Theater is where it’s at in our opinion! Built in 1924 in the Italian Renaissance revival style the lavish theater fell into neglect in the 80s and 90s (pictured below in 1994).
Well luckily the building didn’t fall beyond repair and was beautifully repaired in 2004. The building has incredible details meticulously restored and is now home to the GALA Hispanic Theater. Talk about historic neighborhood defining architecture, this building is the reason the National Register exists![FlickrPhoto: sssdc1]
Follow the jump for how the theater looks today…
[FlickrPhoto:tiz herself]
i remember getting lost around there in ‘95.
rolled up my windows, turned down my music and headed as far away as possible.
it was pretty…. “gritty” back then
why is it called ‘tivoli’?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoli%2C_Italy
I’ve never been to the Tivoli in DC, but I grew a few blocks from another Tivoli Theater built in the 1920s, a grand old movie house in the Chicago suburbs.
$1.50 for second-run showings in the 1980s.
[…] there is definitely no way you could have missed all the construction activity going on outside the Tivoli theater along 14th Street. This great shot captures the action from a little different of an angle than we […]
In the late 50s, my mother and aunt took me to the Tivoli to see the movie the Bible. It was the most beautiful place that I had ever been as a child. So when I was old enouth to go to the movies by myself, I loved to go to the Tivoli. When the riots about Martin Luther King assination, 14th Street was killed and laid dead for 50 years or more. I felt like the so called black neighborhoods was left to rot for the punishment for rioting. I had no where to go that was beautiful throughout my teens and adult social life, in DC. DC is becoming beautiful again. I am now 56 years old and such a short period of time to enjoy the new DC. I wish I could sue someone for mental cruelty for the lack of entertainment through those years. I did not riot!! But I was punished just as those who do riot. It’s 2010 now everything is so expensive I can’t tell my grandchildren that I went to the Tivoli 1973 and It cost 2.50 to get in. In those days DC was called chocolate city. Just like chocolate it melted and evaporated. I think that DC government should give residents that been in DC the last 50 years discounts to enjoy some entertainment in DC. Most entertainment was outside of DC e.i. Maryland Virginia etc.