FRANKLIN HALL
FRANKLIN HALL
“Franklin Hall imagines a meeting between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Benjamin Franklin, two great Americans who enjoyed a tipple from time to time. Cheers boys!”
My Tin Shop business partner Peter Bayne and I knew this one was a winner as soon as we walked through the door. Our friends at Douglas Development often called us when they had quirky spaces for lease and in this case, we are grateful they did. For me, this is one of the best locations I have helped open. The bones of the building have history dripping from them, so all we had to do was let the walls talk. Once again, Billy Colbert delivered our logo and the images throughout, giving Franklin Hall an old school feel, the New Deal meets the American Revolution. Geoff McNabola kept us on track as we built Franklin Hall, moving the construction crew along and keeping us focused on the details. Our talented builders have worked together on so many projects that they feel like family. It’s not unusual to see the plumbers helping the electrician or the painting crew holding steel up for the welders.
A wework was located above us in the Manhattan Laundry building. Upon opening, wewelcomed wework with a huge wedrink sign, but they failed to be amused. Their legal department fired a cease and desist shot over our bar, claiming some sort of brand confusion, so wedesisted and weremoved the wedrink sign. I still think it was some of our best work. welaugh about it to this day. And wework? theygone.
Before Franklin Hall landed at 1348 Florida Ave. NW, DC this space was used as a DC Transit bus repair shop and then a charter school. We kept the DC Transit green steel beams and the beautifully aged red floor, simply sealing both under layers of urethane. It was fun to host the grown-up high schoolers who had attended The Booker T. Washington Public Charter School before it became DC’s most amazing bar. They agreed that our use of the building was much more fun and they laughed out loud as they saw the red floor still under foot.
