Home

About

In the News 

Business Member Directory

Join

Calendar

Newsletter

Most Endangered Places
2003

Old Engine Company 6
Rutherford B. Hayes School
911-919 New Jersey Ave., SE
Carter G. Woodson House
Woodlawn Cemetery
Martin Luther King, Jr. Pub. Library
Anne Archbold Hall
St. Elizabeths
DC World War I Memorial
Uline Arena/Washington Coliseum
Corcoran Hunting Lodge
Capitol Park
Western Telegraph Company

   View the 2007 List
   View the 2006 List
   View the 2005 List
   View the 2004 List
   View the 2003 List
   View the 2002 List
   View the 2001 List
   View the 2000 List
   View the 1999 List

DC's Historic Districts

Historic Site Inventory

Contact

Most Endangered Places for 2003

ULINE ARENA (WASHINGTON COLISEUM)

BETWEEN 2ND & 3RD AND L AND M STREETS, NE

OWNER: Waste Management

HISTORY
This building is located on Third Street, NE, directly adjacent to the railroad tracks just north of Union Station and bounded by L and M Streets. It was built in 1941 and operated by Miguel L. “Uncle Mike” Uline for the Washington Lions of the Eastern Hockey League. The building would seat 9,000 people. This concrete vaulted building was the site of the Beatles first North American concert (just after their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show) and also noted as the home of Go-Go music where local musicians such as Chuck Brown, Trouble Funk and Rare Essence performed. Political rallies and speeches were a tradition in the Arena including a rally stated by Fight for Freedom, Inc. in support of the US involvement in WWII a month before Pearl Harbor and a speech by Nation of Islam Founder Elijah Muhammad in 1959. Since its construction in 1941, the arena later known as the Washington Coliseum, has been a place for figure skating, jazz, wrestling, ballet, basketball, Washington’s Go-Go music style, midget auto racing, rock, hockey, karate, politics, tennis, boxing and Indian ragas.

WHAT IS THE THREAT?
Currently, the building is used as a trash transfer station. In 2002 a DC statute established a 500-foot buffer zone between a transfer station and the nearest residential property – more than twice the distance between the Uline site and the nearest residential property, according to public records. Also, city officials are focusing on the nearby area as a possible site for a Major League Baseball stadium.

DCPL’S RESPONSE
Support research and planning activities that would promote preservation and re-use of the building as a valuable historic structure of benefit to the community. Volunteers are encouraged to contact DCPL to assist in this effort.

PREVIOUS | NEXT