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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — Roaming the streets of the Dupont Circle neighborhood about 20 years ago, Julian Hunt spotted a grimy staircase leading down from the pavement to a boarded-up door. He spent many hours on the phone and in the city’s archives, which led Mr. Hunt to crawl through filthy tunnels with a flashlight to discover an old trolley tunnel inhabited by a small group of homeless people. Since the city’s trolley service shut down in 1962, the 75,000-square-foot labyrinth had been the site of a subterranean murder, rumored ’80s rave parties and a Cold War-era bomb shelter. Now, Mr. Hunt, an architect who was a founder of the Hunt Laudi Studio, has turned the tunnels into the Dupont Underground art space, which draws 3,000 visitors every month. “It’s one of those spaces in the city that becomes mythical because it just hasn’t been open to the public for so long,” said Brianne Nadeau, a member of the City Council. Washington is often portrayed as the staid bureaucratic center of the United States, where a transient young population is drawn only by the job market, and where rocketing property prices limit the fringe art scene. Artists earn their spot at a Smithsonian exhibition only when they have proved themselves elsewhere. Yet, the tunnels are now part of a wave of spaces — from small galleries that host artists to sitting rooms that accommodate musicians — where local talent can showcase work in the capital rather than fleeing to New York. And DuPont Underground i... Link to the full article to read more