The Knickerbocker Theatre was a movie theater located at 18th Street and Columbia Road in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in the United States.

[3] Two days before, a severe blizzard had begun and lasted twenty-eight hours, resulting in a significant accumulation of snow and ice throughout the Washington area.

Authorities also experienced delays in getting fire engines and other equipment to the theater, as the streets of the city remained nearly impassable in places due to snow and vehicles that had become stuck during the blizzard.

However, a fleet of ambulances from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and volunteer taxis reached the scene and evacuated some of the injured to hospitals.

[3] Even with large numbers of police, firefighters, and military personnel, by 2:30 p.m. the next day, the rescuers had still been unable to remove debris from the balcony and reach those seated in the orchestra.

[1] Nearby residents, including the theater's architect, Reginald Geare, helped pull bodies from the debris, feed the rescuers, and supply them with hot drinks.

[6] Two members of the National Press Club, the Pittsburgh Dispatch's reporter Louis W. Strayer and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle's Chauncey C. Brainerd, were among the victims who perished.

[7] Many media reports focused on less famous but more tragic figures, such as a violinist in the theater's orchestra who had been married five days previously and a honeymooning couple who were attending the movie that night.

[3] The investigations concluded that the collapse was most likely the result of poor design, blaming the use of arch girders rather than stone pillars to support the roof.

The site is now the location of a former SunTrust bank, built in the shape of a movie theater to pay homage to the Knickerbocker Theatre.