The Red Brick Bungalow Where Hardcore Made a Home
In a D.C. Suburb, the Dischord House Became the Unlikely Epicenter for Reagan-Era Punk
Walking through the leafy Arlington, Virginia, neighborhood of Lyon Park, you might not even notice the bungalow-style house with its fading red paint and overgrown lawn, a relic from the post-World War II housing boom in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. On the front porch sits a middle-aged white dude in a beanie hat.
This particular dude is Ian MacKaye: hardcore punk demigod. And 2704 N. 4th Street, the red bungalow, is the magical and storied abode that housed MacKaye and his fellow punk divinities—the Dischord house, a symbol for what D.C. …
