An incompatible adaptive use has finally fallen by the wayside -- maybe we can
keep this department store after all.  Barnes & Noble anyone?

Mary Krugman
(currently suffering wythe severe computer malfunction and a bit frantic but
alive nonetheless - I have to run out now and get a jar of merkins to help
pickle a city or two).
------------------------

Subj:   Opera To Remain at Kennedy Center
Date:   6/10/98 5:39:58 AM EST
From:   AOL News
BCC:    MDK10

Opera To Remain at Kennedy Center

.c The Associated Press

 WASHINGTON (AP) - The Washington Opera will remain at the Kennedy Center for
at least 15 more years.

The announcement by the opera's president Tuesday finally ends plans to move
the company into the former Woodward & Lothrop department store downtown.

The board voted to abandon the proposal to move the opera from the center to a
permanent home downtown just two years after philanthropist Betty Brown Casey
had provided $18.05 million so that the opera could buy the old Woodies
building.

The transformation was originally projected at $100 million, but by last
September, the estimated price had risen to about $200 million, The Washington
Post reported.

The opera board's executive committee will now examine the future of the
Woodies building. The money from any sale would go into the opera's Eugene B.
Casey Endowment Fund.

Renovations at the 2,200-seat Kennedy Center opera house are slated for
completion for the 2001-2002 season.

AP-NY-06-10-98 0637EDT

 Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.  The information  contained in the AP
news report may not be published,  broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without  prior written authority of The Associated Press.