Ed. Note: Here is the comprehensive Map of DC’s Rooftop Bars.

From a press release:

Donovan House and Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants are pleased to announce the opening of DNV, an urban rooftop retreat 14 floors above downtown D.C., after a $300,000 revamp. Opening in late May, this newly-updated poolside oasis was reimagined by local design firm, GrizForm, and features stunning views of the Nation’s Capital, framed by sleek dark wood, glass, and chrome. Intimate tables for two and four and inviting lounge seating, upholstered in a soothing shade of green surrounds the pool, creating the perfect setting to join friends and neighbors to sip and savor the new menu of craft cocktails from Zentan’s bar manager Josh Berner and Asian tapas from Executive Chef Jennifer Nguyen in a communal atmosphere. Officially, the name DNV stems from the abbreviation for the Donovan House Hotel and provides a little mystery with being named after former CIA operative Bill Donovan, but informally it also represents a “Damn Nice View.”

Newly appointed Chef Nguyen, from the ground floor restaurant, Zentan, has created a menu of Asian tapas, inspired by her food and cooking style at Zentan. Guests can expect refreshing, shareable plates like Rock Shrimp Tempura, paired with a Kochojun aioli and candied walnuts; Watermelon Salad featuring Maryland blue crab, shaved hearts of palm and pink peppercorns; and Shuimai Dumplings with a pork filling, served with chili ponzu dipping sauce. Nguyen will also feature a shrimp ceviche, with betel leaf, toasted coconut, cashews and grapefruit. In the opening weeks, the food offerings will be limited, but will eventually expand to include the full menu.

Berner’s cocktail menu centers around inventive seasonal refreshments, including his “Tea Lights” – cocktails incorporating freshly brewed teas. Served in glass jars, the Tea Lights include sophisticated combinations such as Basil Hayden bourbon, house-made lemon bitters, and black tea syrup; Beefeater gin infused with citrus-chamomile tea, mixed with Aperol and Blanco Vermouth; and strawberry-infused Tequila Real, combined with lemon juice and verbena-mint tea. Guests can also indulge in a popular British-inspired refresher, Pimm’s Cup, offered on tap. DNV’s bar menu also features a signature spiced rum punch and a specialty punch updated weekly, which will be inspired by fresh flavors of the season. Sangrias and classic cocktails will round out the menu.

Happy hour will be available daily from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., with special pricing on punches, sangrias, cocktails on tap, frozen beverages and specialty cocktails. Special pricing during happy hour will only apply to single servings of drinks, many of which are also available in shareable options for groups of 4-6 and 8-12 people. For example, happy hour drinks will include Butternuts Pork Slap Ale and Jack’s Cider for $5, select sangria, cocktails on tap and frozen drinks for $6 and spiced rum for $7.

DNV is located at 1155 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20005. Operating hours are Monday to Friday from 5:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 7:00 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Back in Dec. 2012 we noted another Quiznos would soon bite the dust – this one at 1707 L St, NW just off Connecticut Ave. An Italian Gourmet Deli will be taking over that space.

Thanks to all who’ve sent emails about the Dunkin Donuts coming to the former Mixt Greens space at 17th/Connecticut and K Street, NW. Sounds like the buildout is rapidly progressing.

Thanks to the reader for following up on yesterday’s giant outdoor “swimming pool” at 17th and Rhode Island Ave, NW:

“I saw a request in the comments yesterday for more pics of the hole being pumped out. They fired the pumps back up around 2pm yesterday and I‘ve attached a pic at around 3:30 yesterday and this morning at 10:00. The hole is drying out…slowly. It still doesn’t look like the excavators are running yet. I’d be surprised if they don’t have to crane them out.”

10am Tuesday

From the National Aquarium:

The Board of Directors of the National Aquarium, Washington, DC, has announced that, due to necessary renovations in the Department of Commerce building, the facility will be closing on September 30, 2013. The General Services Administration (GSA) requires National Aquarium to vacate its current space in the building by March 2014.

This September 30 closing date allows National Aquarium, Washington, DC, to meet GSA’s March deadline using a timeline that accommodates its main priority: the needs of its animals and staff. The collection of more than 1,500 animals will be transitioned to new homes at either National Aquarium, Baltimore, or at other accredited aquariums.

“Here at the National Aquarium, we value our DC venue’s rich history as the nation’s first public aquarium, and we are committed to maintaining a presence in the capital, where a public aquarium has existed since the late 1800s,” said Tamika Langley Tremaglio, National Aquarium, Washington, DC, Board Chair.

A task force of National Aquarium Board members is exploring opportunities and funding options that would support this goal. The closure will not impact the operation of National Aquarium, Baltimore, one of the nation’s leading aquariums.

Established in 1873, the National Aquarium, Washington, DC, first opened its doors to visitors in 1885 with a collection of 180 species of fish, reptiles and other aquatic animals.

TakEatEasy opened up in the former China Cafe space back in Feb. 2013. You can see many of their offerings on their facebook page. Anyone check them out yet?

Uh oh, Washington Business Journal reports that Rumors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization:

“1900 M Restaurant Associates Inc., which holds a liquor license at 1900 M St. and operates under the trade name Rumors, owes between $50,000 and $100,000 to creditors”

But all is not lost for fans of Rumors, WBJ also reports this has happened before in 1997. Though if they do go out of business this is some prime real estate…

From a press release:

DC Historic Landmark, The Hamilton Crowne Plaza, welcomes another DC institution back to town. Sambonn Lek, renowned as DC’s original “celebrity” bartender, returns to DC after a year in his native Cambodia. “Sam” as his regulars know him, will now be serving up his signature “Sam I Am” martinis and magic tricks at the popular 14K Restaurant & Lounge within the historic Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel at 14th and K Streets NW.

Sam has spent the past nine months in Cambodia, overseeing Sam Relief, Inc., an organization he founded in 1999 that has helped to build 27 schools and 345 wells, delivered 100 tons of rice to a local hospital and funded local university scholarships.

“The District will always have a special place in my heart,” says Sam. “I have truly missed the people of Washington, DC and look forward to seeing new and familiar faces from behind the bar at 14K Restaurant & Lounge.”

Sam found a home at The Mayflower Renaissance Hotel’s Town and Country Lounge in 1976, two years after moving to the U.S. He was promoted to head bartender in 1980 and won numerous awards throughout his career, including Employee of the Year by DC Hotel Association along with a Best Bartender title from Washingtonian magazine.

One of the stateliest private buildings in Washington is the old Masonic Temple at 13th Street and New York Avenue NW, completed in 1908 and now home to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Like other Masonic temples, the imposing structure was built with unique cross purposes; it was meant to be both a public forum for lectures and performances as well as a private place for the fraternal order’s meetings and rituals. Since the 1980s, this distinctive Renaissance Revival palace has had a remarkably fitting second life as a museum, and now the NMWA is looking to preserve the building for many more years with much-needed roof repairs. As a participant in the Partners in Preservation program, the museum will be hosting a festive open house this Sunday, May 5, from 12 to 5, offering a great, free opportunity to see this extraordinary building up close and appreciate the art it now displays.

Photo by the author.

The sharp-eyed visitor will notice decorative touches denoting the building’s original use as a Masonic Temple. Freemasonry is a centuries-old tradition descended from medieval stone masons’ guilds, although modern masons are a strictly fraternal order dedicated to benevolent acts. Masons organize themselves into lodges, which are chartered by regional Grand Lodges. DC got its own Grand Lodge in the mid 19th century. In 1870 it built a temple, still standing, at 9th and F Streets NW, but by the 1890s, with 49 Masonic lodges chartered throughout the city, the old hall was no longer adequate. The Masons resolved to build a magnificent new temple at a suitably prestigious location.

The site selection committee received some 20 offers for sites all around the city, and in 1899 they chose the distinctive trapezoidal corner lot formed by New York Avenue, 13th Street, and H Street NW, a prominent location that would allow unobstructed vistas of the new temple on three sides. The lot, once a knoll with a clump of trees known as “Seven Oaks,” cost $115,000.

Continues after the jump.

Next, six of the city’s best architectural firms were invited to submit competing designs for the new building. The winner was the firm of Wood, Donn, and Deming, whose most famous partner was Waddy B. Wood (1869-1944), who would later go on to design buildings ranging from the headquarters of the Interior Department to distinguished houses in the Dupont Circle and Kalorama neighborhoods. For the Masonic Temple, Wood, Donn, and Deming chose a classical Renaissance Revival style that reflected the prevailing architectural preferences of the day. The heavily rusticated design—especially seen in the first floor elevation—conveyed institutional permanence and dignity but also served as a bravura display of the stonemason’s craft.

The Masonic Temple c. 1920 (Author’s collection).

True to classical tenets, the building displays pronounced differences between top, middle and bottom. Above the exquisitely-cut Indiana limestone first level—some 30 feet tall—the central section is brick with terra cotta and limestone trim and includes temple-like classical columns and pilasters. To modern eyes, it looks as if floors were added to the building at some point after it was completed; a couple of extra stories rise above the impressive limestone cornice that rings the building at the fifth floor. However this was part of the original design and appears to emphasize how the top floors of the structure, where the Mystic Shrine was located, were elevated above the lower spaces given over to the hoi polloi.

Postcard view of the 13th Street façade (Author’s collection).

The interior design mirrored the exterior layout. Nearly the entire first floor was filled by a grand auditorium, which fit neatly into the building’s trapezoidal space. The stage was set against the narrow 13th Street side, and seating for 1,800 people fanned out in front of it and in balconies ringing the opposite walls. Designed as a music hall, a grand organ was included as well as space for a dance floor. It was expected that suppers could be served in the large basement banquet hall directly underneath the auditorium.

Drawing of the planned first-floor auditorium from The Washington Times, Oct. 10, 1905.

The middle floors were devoted to office, library, and commercial space, while the fifth and sixth floors—the exclusive upper levels—held another, somewhat smaller auditorium for use by the Masons’ Scottish Rite and Mystic Shrine. “The stage is to be so arranged that the most elaborate services of the Scottish Rite can be given in their entirety,” claimed the Washington Times in 1905—without explaining what exactly that meant.

The former auditorium space as it appears today (photo by the author).

It took longer to design the building than to construct it. Wood, Dunn, and Deming got the job in 1903, but construction didn’t begin until 1907. The cornerstone-laying ceremony, attended by President Roosevelt, was held June 8, 1907, and by October 1908 the Masons began a two-week-long celebration to open the new building, featuring opera singer Lillian Nordica (1857-1914) as well as the sensational young violinist Albert Spalding (1888-1953) in the grand auditorium. There were also many lectures, mostly on travel. L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), author of The Wizard of Oz, was another draw.

From the start, the first-floor auditorium was intended to be rented out as a source of income to the temple, and a wide variety of entertainment appeared there in the early days. In December 1908, just two months after the building opened, the auditorium featured a limited run of “Bradley’s Novelty Pictures,” a collection of early motion picture shorts. “Those who have seen them declare that no more artistic motion pictures are to be found in the American amusement world. They are educational and entertaining, and the coloring is done entirely by hand,” the Washington Post observed.

Postcard of the Army and Navy center (Author’s collection).

In addition to movies and other entertainment in the auditorium, various shops and offices rented space on the second floor of the building, including a dentist, insurance agent, and uniform supply company. The basement banquet hall became the Army and Navy Masonic Service Center, a USO-style lounge for servicemen. In 1941, the first-floor auditorium was thoroughly renovated and reopened as the Pix Theatre, a first-run commercial movie theater. After the war the Pix, like many of the second tier of downtown’s movie houses, started featuring risqué material, and in the early 1950s it moved to 9th Street, where the city’s burlesque houses congregated. At the Masonic auditorium, the Pix was replaced by the Art Cinema, which stretched the meaning of the term “art.” An advertisement from 1955 featured a double billing of “Kerima The She-Wolf” (The Most Evil Woman Who Ever Lived!) and “Formosa” (The Hot Bed of the Far East!).

The Town Theatre circa 1983 (courtesy of NMWA).

The Masons were not happy with the direction the theater was going in, and the Art Cinema’s lease was not renewed. In 1959 new management remodeled the space and opened the Town Theatre, a first-run venue complete with white-gloved ushers. Premieres at the Town included “Psycho,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and “La Dolce Vita.” But the theater was living on borrowed time, as downtown was already declining when it opened, and the immediate neighborhood grew increasingly desolate. Though it never stooped to the skin trade as many nearby shops did, the Town’s offerings shifted in the 1970s to kung fu and other action films, much as had happened at its venerable neighbor, the Keith.

The Masonic Temple, circa 1983 (courtesy of NMWA).

By the early 1980s, the Masons were ready to abandon their once prestigious temple. When they put the building on the market in early 1983, preservationists hurried to have the structure designated as an historic landmark to prevent developers from tearing it down, but their worst fears never came to pass. Later that year, the fledgling National Museum of Women in the Arts, an organization founded by art collector and philanthropist Wilhelmina Holladay, purchased the structure. The beautiful but highly unusual building had found a perfect new owner.

The NMWA undertook an $8 million effort to renovate the old temple and convert it into a museum. With the building’s exterior protected from alterations, the architectural firm of Keyes Condon Florance focused on sympathetic alterations and restorations of the interior spaces, breathing new life into them. The grand first-floor auditorium was converted into special event space. The balconies were reconfigured and connected across the front of the room’s old stage to form a mezzanine overlooking the elegant, newly-marbled main floor. With minor adjustments, the fifth floor auditorium was restored for use as the museum’s auditorium, while other spaces became galleries and offices. Nancy Reagan cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the new museum in April 1987.

The fifth floor auditorium, viewed from the stage, before restoration (courtesy of NMWA).

The fifth floor auditorium, viewed from the rear, after restoration (courtesy of NMWA).

An original doorknob, circa 1984 (courtesy of NMWA).

The NMWA remains today the only museum solely dedicated to celebrating the achievements of women in the visual, performing and literary arts. The museum’s aim is to honor women artists of the past, promote the accomplishments of women artists of the present, and assure the place of women artists in the future. As a participant in the Partners in Preservation program, which will distribute $1 million for historic preservation projects throughout the Washington, D.C. area, the NMWA seeks help in funding much-needed repairs to the building’s unique roof and complex drainage system. By voting for NMWA at the Partners in Preservation website, you can help it try to win a larger share of the funds. The site with the most votes will have its proposed project fully funded, although the other participants will receive a share of funding as well.

The NMWA today (photo by the author).

This coming Sunday, May 5, the NMWA will host a festive open house, with free admission to the museum and live entertainment from noon to 5pm. Youth and adult musicians affiliated with GirlsRock!DC will showcase their talents during a series of performances, helping visitors discover their inner rock star on guitar, keyboards and drums during instrument shares throughout the afternoon. It’s also a chance to view intriguing exhibits dedicated to Impressionist-like Danish modern painter Anna Ancher (1859–1935) and Washington, D.C.-based artist Freya Grand.

* * * * *

Special thanks to Gordon Umbarger and Amy Mannarino of the National Museum of Women in the Arts for much helpful information and the use of historic images. Thanks also to Elyssa Rae who is helping to coordinate the Partners in Preservation program. Additional information came from historic newspapers and magazines as well as the building’s National Register of Historic Places nomination.

Incredible progress at the new 77 H St, NW building. CityPaper reports that the District’s first Walmart is now hoping to open by Nov. 1st. You can see what the building looked like in Dec. 2012 here. Nevermind the Walmart for a moment – do you like the way the building is turning out?

77 H Street, NW Looking West