KNICKERBOCKER THEATER

The Knickerbocker Theater Collapse



Abstract

This theatre was the newest and the biggest movie house in the town. The Knickerbocker Theater was built in 1917. The theatre's roof was flat, permitting the recently fallen snow to stay on it. On the day of the incident, during the movie's intermission, it became very much difficult for the roof to hold the weight of the wet and heavy snow. Consequently, the roof got ripped off from the middle, which not only brought down the seating arrangements on the balcony, but also broke a large portion of the brick walls. As a result of this, dozens of people remained buried under the roof's debris. Media reported this scene, as to have the exact resemblance to a scene of World War I. As a consequence of this disaster, new codes for constructions were introduced in the city, and a number of other theaters shut down, unless their deficiencies are all corrected.

Table of Contents

Abstracti

The Knickerbocker Theater1

Introduction1

Discussion2

The Accident2

Causes4

Rescue Efforts6

Investigations and Impact of the Incident7

Conclusion8

References9

The Knickerbocker Theater Collapse

Introduction

The Knickerbocker Theater was a movie theater situated on 18th Street of Columbia Road in the neighborhood of Adams Morgan, in Washington D.C., United States. It is known in history because of its great roof collapse. The reason of this collapse was a heavy weight of snow, resulting from a blizzard which lasted two days, which was given the name Knickerbocker Storm after some time. When the collapse occurred the Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford was being showed. As a consequence of this sudden collapse 98 patrons died and more than 133 got injured. This disaster is known as the worst of all the disasters which had occurred in the history of Washington D.C. Andrew Jackson Barchfeld, a former member of Congress and various other famous business and political figures were amongst the people who died in this collapse. Reginald Geare; the architect of the theatre and Harry Crandall; the theatre's owner, they both committed suicide later; Crandall in 1937 and Geare in 1927 (Intowner, 2002).

This theatre was the newest and the biggest movie house in the town. The Knickerbocker Theater was built in 1917. The theatre's roof was flat, permitting the recently fallen snow to stay on it. On the day of the incident, during the movie's intermission, it became very much difficult for the roof to hold the weight of the wet and heavy snow. Consequently, the roof got ripped off from the middle, which not only brought down the seating arrangements on the balcony, but also broke a large portion of the brick walls. As a result of this, dozens of people remained buried under the roof's debris. Media reported this scene, as to have the exact resemblance to a scene of World War I. People with oil lamps frenetically tried to rescue people from the site of the disaster. 200 rescue workers organized the scene of disaster of midnight. By 2:30 a.m. the number of people involved in rescue efforts reached above ...