For Immediate Release
November 7, 2002

Some of Washington`s most historic and beautiful old buildings are gone now. But fortunately, the late painter Lily Spandorf captured many of them on paper before they fell to the wrecker`s ball.

"Washington Never More," a collection of Spandorf's watercolors and pen-and-ink drawings, is the first exhibition for Pepco`s new Edison Place Gallery at the company`s headquarters building, 701 Ninth Street, N.W., in Washington`s East End. The exhibition includes 155 paintings and drawings on loan to Pepco from The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

Born in 1914, Spandorf settled in Washington in 1960 and quickly became one of the city`s most celebrated artists. For nearly 40 years, prior to her death in 2000, she painted and drew countless scenes of Washington`s buildings, people and neighborhoods, creating a history of the changing look of the city. "Houses are like people," Spandorf once told a interviewer, "they have faces, they have personalities."

"Washington Never More" will run through March 7, 2003, and will be followed by other museum-quality exhibitions on a regular basis.

Edison Place Gallery is a 4,100-square-foot art space located on the ground floor of Pepco`s new headquarters building. The gallery, which opened Sept. 18, has its entrance on Eighth Street, between G and H streets. It is open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m.

"As a Washington-based company, Pepco has a long history of supporting the arts in the nation`s capital. The vibrant Gallery Place neighborhood - an arts hub for the city - has welcomed our new headquarters with open arms," said John M. Derrick Jr., Chairman and CEO of Pepco Holdings, Inc., Pepco`s parent company. "And we return that embrace by opening the Edison Place Gallery to all who seek to have their spirits lifted by the power of the visual arts."

Pepco`s Edison Place headquarters building was completed last year and has received awards and accolades for both its interior and exterior design.