diff --git a/detectron2/utils/events.py b/detectron2/utils/events.py
index a37d689d08..e9c2640c32 100644
--- a/detectron2/utils/events.py
+++ b/detectron2/utils/events.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import time
 from collections import defaultdict
 from contextlib import contextmanager
+from functools import cached_property
 from typing import Optional
 import torch
 from fvcore.common.history_buffer import HistoryBuffer
@@ -142,10 +143,14 @@ def __init__(self, log_dir: str, window_size: int = 20, **kwargs):
             kwargs: other arguments passed to `torch.utils.tensorboard.SummaryWriter(...)`
         """
         self._window_size = window_size
+        self._writer_args = {"log_dir": log_dir, **kwargs}
+        self._last_write = -1
+
+    @cached_property
+    def _writer(self):
         from torch.utils.tensorboard import SummaryWriter
 
-        self._writer = SummaryWriter(log_dir, **kwargs)
-        self._last_write = -1
+        return SummaryWriter(**self._writer_args)
 
     def write(self):
         storage = get_event_storage()
@@ -174,7 +179,7 @@ def write(self):
             storage.clear_histograms()
 
     def close(self):
-        if hasattr(self, "_writer"):  # doesn't exist when the code fails at import
+        if "_writer" in self.__dict__:
             self._writer.close()
 
 
diff --git a/tests/utils/test_tensorboardx.py b/tests/utils/test_tensorboardx.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..885fb8d357
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/utils/test_tensorboardx.py
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+import os
+import tempfile
+import unittest
+
+from detectron2.utils.events import TensorboardXWriter
+
+
+# TODO Fix up capitalization
+class TestTensorboardXWriter(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_no_files_created(self) -> None:
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp_dir:
+            writer = TensorboardXWriter(tmp_dir)
+            writer.close()
+
+            self.assertFalse(os.listdir(tmp_dir))
+
+    def test_single_write(self) -> None:
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp_dir:
+            writer = TensorboardXWriter(tmp_dir)
+            writer._writer.add_scalar("testing", 1, 1)
+            writer.close()
+
+            self.assertTrue(os.listdir(tmp_dir))