Penn Theater

Washington, DC

650 Pennsylvania Avenue

, Washington, DC, United States

(map)

Status:	Closed
Screens:	Single Screen
Style:	Art Deco

Function:	Housing
Seats:	1438
Chain:	Unknown

Architect:	John Eberson
Firm:	Unknown

The facade of the former Penn which is now the entrance to condominiums

Photo courtesy of Martin McCaffery

Once a truly fabulous Art Deco palace on Capitol Hill, the John Eberson-designed Penn, which opened in 1935, became an exploitation theater in the 1970's. The Penn originally was one of two sister theaters, but the other theater, the Avenue Grand, which was right across the street, burned down in 1970.

The Penn's claim to fame is that it was the theater showing Mohammad: Messenger of God, the film which angered the Hunnafi Muslims so much they took the DC City Council hostage and shot then city councilman Marion Barry.

During the mid-80's, the surrounding area began to be revitalized and the Penn was converted into condos. Fortunately, but strangely, the theater's facade was saved and became the entrance to the condo building—retaining its Deco past.

Contributed by Ross Melnick

YOUR COMMENTS

The Penn Theatre is located at 650 Pennsylvania Ave. and it seated 1438 people.

posted by William on Nov 20, 2003 at 4:47pm

I use to go the Penn in the 70's, it was a nice theatre that showed good films. The sister theatre that you mention that burned down in the 70's may have been called the Avenue Grand at some time but when it burned down it was called the Capitol Hill.

Eric Royal

posted by Eric Royal on Jul 17, 2004 at 6:26pm

"....the theater's facade was saved and became the entrance to the condo building—retaining its Deco past." This saving of a theatre facade was interesting to read.

posted by Patsy on Feb 13, 2005 at 8:08pm

The sister theatre was the AVENUE GRAND for decades, but was renamed CAPITOL HILL when it was briefly a first run arthouse theatre. They played KING OF HEARTS, for example. Both the PENN and AVE GRAND were on Capitol Hill --- an excellent place to get robbed and/or murdered particularly when the Cokehead Mayor Marion Barry ran the city. One might think Congress would straighted out their own turf; after all several were attacked as were their employees. But no; it wasn't until Barry was jailed, then the Republican Congress took over and began the cleanup. High potential of armed robbery & murder just is not good for theatre business. Too bad; the PENN was one of our best.

posted by rlvjr on Jul 12, 2005 at 12:00pm

This is a large photo of the Penn Theater in Washington, DC.

posted by Lost Memory on Sep 15, 2005 at 9:07am

Here is the link for the above photo:
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/washdc/eberson/penntheater.html

posted by ken mc on Feb 10, 2006 at 4:03pm

Here and here are January 2008 photos of the former Penn Theatre.

posted by JackCoursey on Feb 7, 2008 at 6:38pm

Does anyone know when the Penn Theater was built? Was it ever called the Penn Gardens?
I use to go to the Penn Theater in the 50's and early 60's, on Saturday and when we had extra moeny on Sunday as well (the movies changed).

posted by patdel on Aug 6, 2008 at 2:05pm

Here is another photo.

posted by Lost Memory on Mar 6, 2009 at 6:22pm

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