How a Little Tavern Lives On in a Big Union Market Development

• May 31st 2017

by Nena Perry-Brown

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After presenting a more industrial-style design for a proposed 270-unit development at 500 and 530 Morse Street NE (map) at the top of the year, LCOR has revised the design again for the Union Market project — most notably, to incorporate the Little Tavern building on the site.

Little Tavern was a chain of hamburger restaurants in the DC region that was founded in the 1920s. An outpost of the chain opened at 530 Morse Street with its distinctive tavern design in the 1950s. For the past several years, the Little Tavern building has been home to a Subway sandwich shop. In the new plans, the Little Tavern building will be restored to create more commercial space in the project, for a total of just over 20,000 square feet. The interior of the Tavern will be partially open to the ground floor of the adjacent new construction.

In order to make room for and emphasize the Tavern edifice, the new portion of the development will be significantly set back on both Morse and Sixth Streets, to be constructed 13 feet over the northern roof of the Tavern. The new building will have a dark metal material around the Tavern to further accentuate the more historic portion. The Tavern could potentially have neon signage as it has previously, although this will be subject to Historic Preservation Office review.

Flexibility is also being sought for the varying roof heights in the new design and for relief from open court width requirements. The Zoning Commission will consider the SK + I Architectural Design Group development on June 15th.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/little_tavern_lives_on_in_lcor_union_mkt_dvlpt/12628.