In a city full of national monuments, an enterprising landlord is declaring the building containing the legendary Kramers bookstore “the birthplace of television,” and envisions turning the area near the Dupont Circle Metro station into a national landmark.
“Everyone in the city and half the people in the country know Kramer Books,” said Pete Hiotis, with Cadence Management LLC, who in 2016 purchased the buildings at 1517 and 1519 Connecticut Avenue in Northwest D.C. “What people don’t know is that the upstairs offices belonged to Charles Francis Jenkins and that this building is also the birthplace of television.”
Hiotis took WTOP on an exclusive video tour of the building ahead of Friday’s open house, which will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first public demonstration of television…