Before becoming a rock star, Jim Morrison attended high school in Alexandria, Va., and occasionally came to Route 1.

Greenbelt author Mark Opsasnick dived deep into the local haunts of the future Doors’ frontman for his latest book, “Orange Brick in Warm Sun.”

Opsasnick told the Hyattsville Wire that he did not include the Route 1 connections in the book because they lacked the “extensive corroboration” he wanted.

But he found evidence that Morrison visited the Stanton Art Theatre on at least two occasions. Located just off Route 1 at 3100 18th St. NE on the border of the Woodridge and Brookland neighborhoods of D.C. just off Route 1, the Stanton was” one of only a handful of theatres in D.C. at the time that showed art, offbeat and foreign films,” Opsasnick told the Wire.

Morrison tended to go to arthouse theaters that were easier to get to from his home in Alexandria since he would have to ride with friends in a car to get to the Stanton.

But he said that Morrison was a big fan of Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein and watched his film, “Battleship Potemkin,” which was shown at the Stanton in November 1959 and in April 1960.

“It is also believed that he was back at the Stanton in January 1961 to see the movie ‘Pull My Daisy,’ the Beat Generation film narrated by his literary hero, Jack Kerouac,” Opsasnick said. “This may have been the only D.C. showing of the film from 1959-1961, and friends recall Morrison having seen the movie while living in the D.C. area.”

The Stanton closed in 1990, and the building is now home to the Grace Covenant Church.

Opsasnick will be reading from “Orange Brick in Warm Sun” at Maryland Meadworks on Sunday, Feb. 18. Doors open at 11 a.m., with a talk at 1 p.m., followed by live music from Hyattsville-based Doors cover band, Love Her Meadly.

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