Van Ness Square, partially demolished, on Dec. 28, 2013.
As part of my ongoing Soapstone Valley project, I’ve been monitoring the slow demolition of a large yellow-brick commercial building on the valley’s far northwestern edge. Van Ness Square, built in 1938 as the Chevy Chase Ice Palace, the building has been a notable fixture on this stretch of upper Connecticut Avenue corridor.
Streets of Washington published an authoritative history on the building in 2010 and noted that much of the original structure was remodeled: