More restoration work has been done on a historic music hall in North Brentwood once frequented by the likes of Duke Ellington.

A new sign, exterior lighting, and an antique-looking barber pole have been added to the exterior of Sis’s Tavern at 4516 41st Ave.

Built in 1912, the building initially operated as a grocery store and later housed at various times a barbershop and a juke joint in the 1950s and 1960s where jazz stars like Ellington and Pearl Bailey would stop after more formal performances in downtown D.C. such as at the Howard Theatre. In 1978, the property was conveyed to an area resident and the tavern reopened as “Baby Dee’s Guest Club” until it closed around 1996.

It’s also notable as the first commercial building in the town, which was founded in the Reconstruction era by African-American veterans of the Union Army.

Using state and federal grants, the town has been painstakingly restoring the building and added a mural by Chanel Compton called “Play That Song, Mr. Ellington” to the site in 2015.

In 2019, it was also the subject of “Welcome to Sis’s,” a play by Doug Robinson put on by the Ally Theatre Co. at Joe’s Movement Emporium in Mount Rainier.

The building, which has been owned and operated by African-American residents for African Americans, holds significance in the town of North Brentwood, which was the first incorporated African American community in Prince George’s County. It is being rehabilitated by the town of North Brentwood and the Hyattsville Community Development Corp together with Neighborhood Design Center and District Logistics.

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