Some, like the Warner Theater downtown, have been restored to period condition and are in use nearly every night. The recently restored Lincoln Theater on U Street NW has become a cultural center and anchor of the revitalization of the neighborhood.

Other theaters, such as the Howard near Florida and Georgia avenues NW, have been empty and locked for years, their marquees and vertical neon signs rusting.

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At least one more of Washington’s aging historic theaters is about to be revitalized.

What’s left of the Senator Theater, on Minnesota Avenue SE just south of Benning Road, is slated to be reincarnated as a Burger King franchise. All that remains of the theater is the lobby area — which will house the restaurant — and an imposing facade, which will be preserved by the owner, Baltimore-based Urban City Foods, said a Burger King spokesman.

"It’s going to be one funky-looking restaurant," said Burger King corporate spokesman Jackie Castro.

The structure would have been torn down years ago if not for the intense lobbying efforts of the Art Deco Society of Washington, said Michael Crescenzo of the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization.

There was virtually no support among local residents for saving the Senator because it had been a white theater during segregation, Crescenzo said. Meanwhile, the historically black Strand theater, a vacant shell nearby at Nannie Helen Burroughs and Division avenues, has become an open-air drug market.

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The Atlas Theater in the 400 block of H Street NE has fared somewhat better. Built in 1938, it was considered a state of the art theater in its day, with an upstairs nursery where children could stay while parents watched live performances and films, said Ken Brewer, project manager for the H Street Community Development Corp. which bought the property in 1984 for $1 million.

The corporation refurbished the facade in 1989 but has been unable to find a tenant for the empty building.

Historic preservation specialists Ward Bucher Architects stripped off layers of building materials to reveal the original limestone facade, sculpted in windswept curves of the "streamlined moderne" style. They refurbished the vertical Atlas sign that hung on the marquee and restored the red neon lights. The riot-damaged storefronts were replaced with glass from Czechoslovakia.

Over the last 10 years, various proposals to turn the building into a dinner theater or nightclub fell through because of lack of financial backing, Brewer said. The site is too small for a bowling alley or movie theater, which, these days, has to be multi-screen. Several small retail businesses on the ground floor have failed, Brewer said.

Just because the outside looks great, doesn’t mean it will make money, community developers have found.

"There is in the planning community this belief that if you redo a building, something will automatically happen," Crescenzo said. "But if there is no market, there is no market."

"Just simply renovating a building — which costs a lot of money — isn’t enough," he said. "If you have no tenants for it, you haven’t done anything."

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Across town in Northwest Washington’s Shaw neighborhood, the aging Tivoli Theater at 14th Street and Park Road faces a similar dilemma. Built in 1921, the 2,500 seat theater had dark mahogany paneling on the walls, thick pile rugs on the floors and ornamental iron and gilded plasterwork decorating the huge proscenium arch. The restrooms were furnished in imported marble.

The Tivoli was badly damaged during the 1968 riots and closed in 1976. In 1985, it was designated a historic landmark by the city. Any alteration or demolition of the building must be approved by the city.

Now the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights and some residents want to see it restored. The Tivoli sits on one of 10 parcels in the area that the city owns, and for which the D.C. Redevelopment Land Agency is seeking bids from developers in the coming months in conjunction with the planned opening of the Columbia Heights Metro station in late 1999. Neighborhood activists have proposed making the restored theater the center of a cultural and civic area.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator