Miracle on 8th Street

ANC6B Approves Signage for National Capitol Church Theater on Barracks Row

Miracle on 8th Street

by Larry Janezich

The old Meader Theater which was opened in 1909 at 535 8th Street, SE, and went through several iterations before becoming the People’s Church in 1962 and the National Community Church (NCC) in 2011, is about to be resurrected and rechristened as the Miracle Theater.

Last Tuesday night, ANC6B signed off on the NCC’s Historic Preservation Application to install a 3 foot X 17 foot non-blinking and non-flashing sign for the front of the church.  The application now goes to the Historic Preservation Review Board with the ANC’s endorsement.

In May of 2011, Lead Pastor Mark Batterson of NCC announced that the church had purchased The People’s Church.  At that time, Batterson said NCC would turn the space back into the theater it once was from 1910 until 1960.  Services would be held Sundays, but at other times it would be an entertainment venue.

According to Batterson, the first movie was screened there on October 10, 1910.  He went on to say in May of last year, that “if we get to that point, it would be fun to show a film on the same date more than 101 years later.”   The genres of film the theater might screen include family, classic, and first run films.