Music Row Resurrection?

Nashville’s reputation as the recording capital of Country Music took off in 1954, when Owen and Harold Bradley established Bradley Film and Recording Studios, later called the Quonset Hut Studio, on 16th Avenue, opening the first of many major label studios in the neighborhood in and around 16th and 17th Avenues South. 21st century commercial real estate pressures moved many studios out of Music Row, but cultural preservations and country music enthusiasts are fighting back. The National Trust declared the district a National Treasure in 2015, and the city’s planning department now envisions a culturally-sensitive development process to resurrect Music Row.

More:

“How Nashville plans to save Music Row, a endangered cultural treasure,” Patrick Sisson, Curbed.com

Video: “Murder on Music Row,” written by Larry Cordle and Larry Shell, recorded by Alan Jackson and George Strait, 2000. Originally recorded by Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time, 1999.

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Richard III’s Parking Lot

In 2013, Richard Plantagenet of the House of York, better-known as King Richard III, was discovered under a parking lot in Leicester, England, where he had been since 1485. He was quite dead, so authorities made no attempt to collect 500-years-worth of parking fees.

The scruffy lot, site of Greyfriar’s monastery when Richard III entered long-term parking, was recently declared a national historic site. It’s convenient to the King Richard III Visitor Centre, which notes: “Despite King Richard III being known as the car park king, there is no parking available at the Visitor Centre.” Park at ye olde Holiday Inn or the Highcross Shopping Centre.

More:

“Leicester car park where Richard III was buried given protected status,” Maev Kennedy, The Guardian

“English Car Park Where Remains Of Richard III Were Found Declared A Monument,” Scott Neuman, NPR

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Uline Arena. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.

It hosted the Beatles’ first American concert, boxing, hockey, speeches by Malcolm X, and Dwight Eisenhower’s first inaugural ball . It was an ice house and a trash transfer station. Now the Uline Arena will be redeveloped as offices, retail, parking, and possibly performance space.

More:

“Uline Arena, Washington Venue Where Beatles Played First U.S. Show, To Become…Offices And Retail,” Will Wrigley, Huffington Post

“Uline Arena, get ready for your next phase,” Rachel Kaufman, Elevation DC

“Pictorial History Of Uline Arena,” 1959 BHS Mustangs

“Uline Ice Plant,” HAER No. DC-66

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here.  Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Historic Capitol Hill

Archaeologists excavating the site of an abandoned Blockbuster store on Washington’s Barracks Row have uncovered the ruins of an ancient Erol’s Video Club (above). This DC-area cult flourished in the late 20th century and involved contemplation of moving images and veneration of magnetized plastic tape.

Gettysburg Gambling?

A new monument to America’s Civil War history is proposed for Gettysburg: a gambling casino. The Mason-Dixon Resort & Casino would be located a half mile from Gettysburg National Military Park on what was known as South Cavalry Field, scene of fighting on July 3, 1863.

Historians are not pleased. On the 147th anniversary of the bloody Civil War battle, 276 American historians sent a letter to the state gaming control board, protesting the project. “This ground is as hallowed as any other part of the Gettysburg battlefield, and the idea of a casino near the fields and woods where men of both North and South gave the last full measure of devotion is simply outrageous,” said Pulitzer Prize winner James M. McPherson. 

Eastern Market Building to Re-Open June 26

UPDATE: Free music at Eastern Market June 27-28.

Capitol Hill’s Eastern Market building will re-open Friday, June 26th, refurbished and re-interpreted, after it was gutted by fire on April 30, 2007. While the 1873 building is of questionable historical or aesthetic merit, it will certainly go down in history for its rehab pricetag: $22 million in public funds.

Great pains were taken to use historically accurate paint colors and streetlamp forms in the adaptive restoration, but astonishing anachronisms (lead-free paint, electric lights, air conditioning) abound. There is no word when historically-correct horse manure and flies will be installed in surrounding streets and alleys.

DC OKs Demolition of Brutalist Church

Third Church of Christ, Scientist, Washington, D.C. Oh, wait ….

The DC Historic Preservation Review Board had designated the 37-year-old Third Church of Christ, Scientist a Historic Landmark and prevented its demolition, against the wishes of the congregation, the Mayor’s Office, and anyone with at least minimal eyesight who passes 900 16th St. NW. The structure is in the mercifully-extinct style of “Brutalism,” a term derived from the French béton brut, “raw concrete.” It is a huge concrete blockhouse.

Yesterday Harriet Tregoning, Director of the DC Office of Planning, acting as Mayor’s Agent for Historic Preservation,  issued what appears to be a final ruling on the issue:  junk the joint.

The report observes that “design errors” and “defective workmanship” make the building unsuitable for human pursuits of any kind, even with huge operating expenditures for lighting, temperature and humidity control and ventilation. The DC Government will permit the structure’s demolition. The full document is here. Some excerpts:

— The building’s design and choice of materials, particularly the use of uninsulated concrete, were experimental and it could not have been predicted when the building opened in 1971 whether it would succeed as a place of worship.  …the experiment failed badly.

— Adaptive reuse of the church building is not a viable option.

— The use of uninsulated concrete also resulted in the inability to stabilize the wide range of temperature and humidity levels that exist within the building.

— …the Church could operate in the existing building for only three to five years before exhausting its cash reserves.