Knickerbocker Theatre
On the evening of January 28, 1922, a crowd braved the heavy winter snow to see Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford at the Knickerbocker Theatre, 2454 18th Street, N.W. in Washington D.C.
The orchestra was playing during the intermission when a "roar like thunder" echoed overhead, the roof crashing in under the weight of the snow. Ninety-eight people were killed with 136 injured in one of the worst catastrophes to befall the nation's capitol.
Most histories of the event place the emphasis on the 28 inches of snow, the most severe storm the city had experienced since 1899. However the architectural and building magazines, of 1922, offer an additional reason for the roof collapse.
Bricklayer, Mason & Plasterer, March 1922:
"The Knickerbocker theater could not have fallen if there had not been somewhere a fault in construction, a fault which adequate inspection should have detected and denounced so forcibly as to command correction."
Interior Ruins, Knickerbocker Theatre (Photo:Theatre Talks)
The Architectural Review, March 29, 1922:
"The snow load on the night of the disaster could not have exceeded an average of 15 lb. per sq. ft. and it is barely possible that this additional load may have been the proverbial last straw. The live load required for roofs in that city [Washington D.C.] is 25 lb. per sq. ft., which means of course that a breaking load would be mre than 100 lb. per sq. ft."
