Building a Bigger, Better Eagle
Ted Clements and Peter Lloyd are soaring high with construction underway for the new DC Eagle
Ted Clements, Leather Handyman
THESE DAYS WHAT it takes is 16- to 20-hour days for Clements, as he oversees construction and related issues in the new space. Lloyd helps whenever he’s not consumed with his full-time job as a government employee. The third partner, Angus, is dealing with health issues that have sidelined him a bit.
“Once we went to closing, Peter took a step back,” says Clements, the handy type since his high school days of working as a bricklayer with his brother Chris — interestingly, Chris has continued in the trade and is now serving as the new DC Eagle’s bricklayer. The 52-year-old also oversaw remodeling of the historic house in Silver Spring that he shares with Tom Kristie, his partner of nearly 20 years and husband of one.
Clements was only six when he first realized he liked manly men in uniform — that’s when he developed a fascination with “cowboys and their boots” on a cross-country family trip. Born in Warrenton, Va., but raised in Fairfax to parents who were both in the CIA, he eventually took a shine to military men. “After high school I joined the Marine Corps,” he says, “and it was like, I really like sleeping with 60 men in my bedroom.” Clements got into the bar business after the Marines, while living in Jacksonville, N.C., near Camp Lejeune. He ran two very different bars in that small town — the Leatherneck Tavern, popular with Marines, and Friends Lounge, a gay drag and dance club down the street — before returning to the Washington area 22 years ago. “I found out my father had cancer,” he says. “It was time for me to move home.” Once back, Clements sought out a job with the DC Eagle — and he’s been there ever since, buying the place with Lloyd and Angus nearly four years ago.
From Cow Parts to Cowhide
“WE LOOKED AT so many properties,” Lloyd says. But 3701 Benning Rd. NE stood above everything else. “I love the fact that it has a sordid history. And as more time goes by, the more I find out about its history.” Most recently Lloyd learned that the nearly 17,000 square foot building once served as a storehouse for fireworks. “Which made sense to me, because there’s not a lot to burn here. It’s poured concrete and brick.”
“It’s a fortress in a lot of ways,” says Clements, as he leads Metro Weekly on an exclusive tour of the new space on a recent sunny day. A construction crew — led by K4 Associates, LLC, the same Rockville-based company that developed Town Danceboutique — was noisily drilling and chipping away, occasionally spooking Ristretto, Clements’ rescued Italian greyhound seemingly always by his side. Clements notes that one wall is two-feet thick and dates back to before the Civil War.
From 1916 until the 1950s, the building was use as a slaughterhouse — which just makes a kind of sense for a venue whose primary motivating passion is for clothing made from cowhide. There are four large smoking chambers where they would smoke the meat on the second floor — the floor will be named the Exile in homage to the old D.C. nightclub. Later he points to a steel beam where they’re installing a 400 square feet dance floor. “This is where they brought the cattle in,” he says, adding with a laugh, “I think I could strap a few boys to that.” No doubt they will play up the history of the building, which has also served as an engineering school and, most recently, a church. But with floors eight-inches thick, it seems all-but custom-made for furry fellas to dance the night away. “The bears can dance and the chandeliers won’t swing,” Clements teases.
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