History

Lost Washington: Crandall's Joy Theater

by Kent Boese   •   May 12, 2009 3:00 pm

According to Shorpy, the Joy opened in 1913 and was generally simply referred to as Crandall's, after owner Harry M. Crandall. This image is ca. 1920.

Click to enlarge.

The Joy, located on the southeast corner of 9th and E Streets, NW, was Crandall's springboard to the top of the Washington movie ladder. He spent $25,000 to build the Joy in what had been a four-story building that housed a haberdashery. The floor was red concrete and sloped to the front so that it could be flooded every night after the theater closed. It was believed that a complete flooding would keep the theater absolutely sanitary.

Seating about 450, the Joy was in operation only until 1924, when it was converted back into retail space.

The Joy was part of a string of theaters located on the 400 and 500 blocks of 9th Street which included Moore's Garden Theatre, shown in the above photograph to the right of the Joy. You can read more about Moore's in this earlier post.

The entire block has been razed and replaced by new structures over the years.

Kent Boese posts items of historic interest primarily within the District. He's worked in libraries since 1994, both federal and law, and currently works on K Street. He lives in the Park View neighborhood, and is the force behind the blog Washington Kaleidoscope.