Making Creativity Shine at Eckington Hall

Eckington Hall hasn’t turned out the way David Ross planned.

He initially envisioned a concert hall packed with people jamming it up to late-night music. Instead, he’s hosting vendors and artists — and to his surprise, he’s found beauty and community in that.

“I did not think I would like just being in a store and having people show up in the afternoon or having workshops,” Ross says. And yet: “Just yesterday, we had a tour for a guy who’s going to do a sushi making class. Yeah, I’m excited about that.”

Ross’ Eckington Hall opened in March. The developers’ original plans for the space had stalled, so Ross was able to lease it and slowly figure out his own vision: a mishmash of gallery, makerplace and market, now open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a week.

Ross kicked off the opening with “Enchant This,” a display by two photographers from New Mexico: Nathaniel Tetsuro Paolinelli and Gabriela Campos.

Ross had never met either of them before he pitched the gallery to them. As for how he won them over?

“Never underestimate the power of a strongly worded email.”

He scrambled to figure out how to print photos for display, but he pulled it off in the end. Visitors from New Mexico praised the exhibit, he says, and New Mexico congresswoman Melanie Stansbury spoke at the opening night.

But even with the pictures, Ross says the hall wasn’t done yet.

“People would come in the space, with the photos up and they’d be like, ‘This is great. When do you all open?’ and I was just like, ‘Wait, what do you mean? We are open,’” Ross says. “Because the space is so big — it’s 2,100 square feet. With the photos, it just looked bare.”

That’s when he reached out to contacts from art markets. Eckington Hall started to fill up with vintage clothes, quilted coats, candles, books and jewelry. Classes in sewing and drumming launched. A carpenter moved his workspace into the hall.

Ross second-guessed himself along the way. Some people are amazed by the space, he says, but others seem unsure about what he’s trying to do. To his surprise, he received some of his most effusive encouragement from a Verizon employee helping him install Internet.

“He was like, ‘So how long are you gonna be here?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. I think I’m just gonna do this for a little bit,’” Ross says. “But he responded, ‘This doesn’t look like a temporary thing.’ He just went on about the art of it all.”

To Ross, that Verizon worker was “a f–king guardian angel.”

Beyond that interaction, Ross says he’s received so much community support as he becomes familiar with the neighborhood, with people’s kids and dogs. He runs Eckington Hall almost single-handedly, assisted by McKinley Technology High School student Esther Etinoff.

As for what’s next? Ross doesn’t quite know. He’s still leasing the space month-to-month and taking it a step at a time.

Despite his initial reservations, he’s wound up enjoying the marketplace he created. Though Eckington Hall’s offerings might seem eclectic at first glance, they all meet one simple criterion:

“It’s something I wouldn’t mind being in a room of all day.”

Eckington Hall: 1611 Eckington Pl. NE, Suite 170, DC; eckingtonhall.com // @eckingtonhall

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Aviva Bechky