Bethesda Theatre
July 1998 Press Release
Press Release 7/98
Press Release 7/98
Art
Deco Society of Washington
Launches National Register Nomination
to Help Protect the 1938 Bethesda Theatre
The
Art Deco Society of Washington, a regional non-profit historic preservation
group that led the successful campaigns to save the Washington Greyhound
Terminal and the Silver Theatre-Silver Spring Shopping Center complex, has just
nominated the 1938 Bethesda Theatre in Montgomery County, Maryland to the
National Register of Historic Places.
The National Register program is conducted by the federal government in partnership with states and localities.
The Art Deco Society has taken this action in order to spotlight the theaters significance in light of a pending development proposal that threatens to ruin the theater by swallowing it up in new construction. The Art Deco Society intends to oppose this development project vigorously until it is redesigned and reconfigured.
The 1938 Bethesda Theatre was designed by the world-renowned theater architect John Eberson, the same architect who designed the Silver Theatre in Silver Spring. It is noteworthy that the Silver Theatre, already listed in the National Register, is about to be restored in an exemplary manner by Montgomery County to serve as the premier facility of the American Film Institute.
The Bethesda and the Silver Theatres are fine examples of a rare and vanishing type of building. Only a few other Art Deco cinemas -- Washington's Uptown Theater and Baltimore's Senator Theater, for example - survive in this region, Most have been demolished, gutted, or ruined by extensive alterations. Though John Eberson's firm designed thirteen theaters in the greater Washington area, only three -- the Bethesda, the Silver, and the Cheverly (now the Prince Georges Public Playhouse) -- survive fundamentally intact.
The Bethesda Theatre is remarkably well-preserved, and it received legal protection at the county level in 1985. In that year the theater was listed as a historic resource in Montgomery Countys Master Plan for Historic Preservation. The Master Plan protects its historic resources through oversight by the countys Historic Preservation Commission. The Master Plan, however, also permits the consideration of compromises that blend preservation with new development.
The owners of the Bethesda Theatre, the Beta Corporation, opposed the Master Plan designation in 1985. Now, in partnership with developer Gene Smith, the Beta Corporation proposes to put new construction on top of the Bethesda Theatre. The Art Deco Society opposes this project in its current form because the new construction covers up so much of the Bethesda Theatre that the historic building is almost completely hidden from view.
ADSW calls upon Beta to redesign their project so that the new construction is set back further from the street. Such a set-back would permit the Bethesda Theatre to remain sufficiently visible. If the Beta Corporation is unwilling to redesign their project, ADSW calls upon the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission to deny the owners and their developer the permits that they need to proceed with construction. Only a redesigned project that does not overpower and obscure the visual identity of the Bethesda Theatre would be acceptable.
The precedent for such a project exists already in downtown Washington: the Greyhound Bus Terminal project at 1100 New York Avenue, N.W., in which a low-rise Art Deco building has been preserved with a larger new building behind it -- at a respectful distance that allows the smaller historic building to maintain its three-dimensional identity.
It is worth pointing out that the Beta project has also elicited formal opposition from its next-door commercial neighbor, Chevy Chase Cars. As originally proposed and configured, the Beta project would have made it almost impossible for this generations-old Bethesda firm to conduct its business. Chevy Chase Cars was forced to initiate a lawsuit and appeals for administrative and legislative relief -- just to protect its ability to function.
Supervising the Art Deco Society's Bethesda Theatre campaign is Richard Striner, the former President of the Society, who is also coordinating the Society's oversight of the Silver Spring preservation case. Striner has assumed these duties at the request of the Society's Board, who regarded the threat to the Bethesda Theatre as sufficiently serious to bring a veteran activist with fifteen years worth of preservation experience back into action.
ADSW would be pleased to provide copies of the National Register nomination, to explain the nature of the National Register nomination process and National Register listing, and to answer other questions pertaining to the Bethesda Theatre case.
For further information, contact the Art Deco Society of Washington.