In 1898, the Spanish-American War exposed the U.S. military's weaknesses through uncoordinated Army units and internal issues of communication. Despite America's ultimate victory, Secretary of War Elihu Root and President Theodore Roosevelt called for a complete reorganization of military education. Thus, the idea for a "national war college" was born.

Congress officially approved funding for the Army War College in 1904, and by the 1910s the school had evolved into a model of military education. Built in 1907 on the site of the former Washington Arsenal (DC's main armory from 1790 through the War of 1812), the college is a captivating example of Neo-Classical Architecture. The building was designed by the renowned architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. The school relied on analysis of previous global conflicts, and the implementation of "war games" to teach tactical strategy. The Army War College also played a role in drafting national defense legislation prior to America's entry into World War I.

Despite the college's initial success, Congress disbanded the institution at the onset of World War II--yet the institution was re-established as the National War College in 1946. The name change was intended to indicate the "national" intelligence at the school, as individuals from the State Department and Central Intelligence Agency had been recruited as students and faculty. The National War College continues to operate as a military education institution, with the mission to "educate future leaders of the Armed Forces, Department of State, and other civilian agencies for high-level policy, command and staff responsibilities by conducting a senior-level course of study in national security strategy."

The college was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1972. It is inaccessible to the public, as it is located on an active military base, Fort McNair.

DC Register: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)

National Register: November 28, 1972

National Historic Landmark: November 28, 1972

Within Fort McNair Historic District

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The Lucy Diggs Slowe Elementary School first opened in 1945 in response to a lawsuit against segregated schooling in DC. John Preston Davis attempted to enroll his five-year old son at Noyes Elementary School in 1944, yet was rejected based upon race. Mr. Davis, a Harvard Law School graduate and co-founder of the National Negro Congress, pursued legal action against DC Public Schools. His son would’ve been required to walk 17 blocks to school, despite being less than half a mile from four all-white schools. After a legal battle involving discussions of home rule, race, and constitutionality, the U.S. Congress allotted $44,000 dollars to build a school for the Black residents of Brookland in June 1944. A temporary school building opened in 1945 (as the Crummell School Annex) at 1325 Jackson Street NE. Soon after, the Board of Education approved renaming the new school after Lucy Diggs Slowe, a prominent DC educator who worked as a public school principal and professor at Howard University. Designed by Municipal Architect Nathan Wyeth and completed by his successor, Merrell Coe (following Wyeth’s death in 1946), the school officially opened in 1948. Designed in a modern style, the rectangular building is a concrete structure with pre-cast concrete decorative paneling, glass blocks, and horizontal banks of window openings. Upon first opening, the space had five available classrooms and capacity for 180 pupils.  Located at the intersection of Jackson and 14^th Streets NE in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC, the new school quickly became overcrowded. Conditions were inadequate for learning and created dangerous fire hazards. In turn, parents used strikes, community organizing, and student protest to communicate their dissatisfaction and demands for better educational space. Overcrowding at Slowe was finally resolved through the legal desegregation of public schools in the District in the landmark Supreme Court case of Bolling v. Sharpe, which went into effect in 1954. Despite a building renovation in 1967 that added a library and additional classroom/storage space, the school continued to face consistent problems. The displacement and eventual decline of Black residents in DC in the 1960s and 1970s, combined with the increase in charter schools in the 1990s, resulted in the closure of Slowe Elementary School in 2009. Today, the building houses the Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy Public Charter School. As part of DC’s local history and the larger national history of Blacks organizing for equality, the Slowe Elementary School is significant as both a space for civil rights activism in the realm of education and an early example of modern architecture.

DC Inventory: October 28, 2021

National Register: December 20, 2021

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Designed by Nathan C. Wyeth, Calvin Coolidge Senior High School (Coolidge High School) constitutes a significant example of Georgian Revival architecture in the District—and remains part of the District’s early efforts to improve local education.

Coolidge High School is particularly important as one of the last revivalist architectural style structures constructed for the purpose of local schooling. In addition to the rise of modernist architecture, economic constraints in the following decades ultimately led to the local government’s movement away from stylistic detailing and elaborate designs for public schools. Built prior to these restrictions, Coolidge High School’s Georgian Revival style is distinguishable in its hipped roofs, elaborate door surrounds, a wide pavilion and portico, and the crowning cupola atop the main block.

Constructed between 1937 and 1940, Coolidge High School’s establishment was a result of school overcrowding in the developing areas of the District. Increasing population growth and the expansion of residential development in the early 20th century led to the Board of Education’s Five-Year Building Plan proposal in 1924 and its passage in 1925. Despite building interruptions due to the Great Depression and an influx of even more District residents following the expansion of federal jobs through the New Deal, numerous schools were constructed under the Five-Year Building Plan--notable examples in the city include Thomas Jefferson Junior High School and Woodrow Wilson High School.

Coolidge High School opened its doors to the Takoma Park neighborhood in 1940, for at least 750 students on their first day. The school continues to serve the surrounding area under the same name and in many of the same spaces as dedicated teachers and students did over 75 years ago.

DC Inventory: September 23, 2021

National Register: April 12, 2022

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Located in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC, the Morse School served many purposes after its opening in 1883 as an elementary school that exclusively served white children. Designed by an unidentified architect in the District’s Office of the Building Inspector, the Samuel F.B. Morse Elementary School was built in the Georgian Revival style, a highly typical design for eight room, late-nineteenth century school buildings. Named for the inventor of the telegraph, the school itself has no historical connection to Samuel F.B. Morse. In 1911-1912, the elementary school transitioned into a “special school” that offered only specialized classes. Upon its opening, it was the only public school building used for such courses in the District. Students sent to the “special school” were identified as “incorrigible children who present social behavior problems” but who were “not feeble-minded in the sense that they should be confined in institutions.” The school itself housed a cooking department, dress tailoring shop, and a carpenter shop. Traditional classrooms were abandoned entirely, and the school continued to serve only white students. However, in 1930, demographic changes in the surrounding neighborhood led to the Morse School’s transfer back into a traditional elementary school, but this time for Black students in the area. By 1939, the Morse School was identified as being an inadequate property for schooling—teachers had no restroom, the hallways were unheated, and there were no administrative offices for the principal. Ten years later, the school closed for student use. By the 1950s, the school housed offices for public school administrators and offered space for barbering classes, courses for veterans, and night school lessons. Problems of dilapidation and declining funds resulted in the designation of the Morse School as a “surplus school” in 1976. After sitting vacant for five years, the building was sold to the non-profit Africare in 1981. After a lengthy renovation, the façade remained mostly unaltered and the building remains representative of classic Georgian Revival style design. The F.B. Morse School’s diverse and sporadic history demonstrates the influence of larger historical themes – segregation, desegregation, the expansion of public schooling, urban demographic shifts – on the District of Columbia and remains a significant building both architecturally and historically.

DC Inventory: September 24, 2020

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Virginia-born Miss Rose Lees Hardy (1869-1932) was the Assistant Superintendent of DC Public Schools from 1925 until her death in 1932. As a specialist in primary education and piano, Miss Hardy left an impact on the surrounding community through her civic works and dedication to young children. A few months after her death in October of 1932, the Washington Board of Education decided to rename the Foxhall Village School (a building project in motion since 1930) after Miss Hardy. In 1934, a triple memorial composed of a commemorative tablet, a rose garden, and a fund for visiting educational lecturers.

The Rose Lees Hardy School (Hardy School) – then called Foxhall Village School – opened in September 1933 as a public elementary school serving children in the neighborhood and the surrounding areas. Designed by Albert L. Harris in the Colonial Revival Style, the red brick building with limestone and wood trim complements surrounding buildings in the neighborhood. Upon the school’s opening, students who had previously been made to travel over a mile to the nearest schools transitioned to the Hardy School, which continued to undergo construction to expand its facilities. Issues of school overcrowding and a lack of funding were eventually resolved in 1936 with monetary support from the New Deal’s Public Works Administration.

The Hardy School diligently served elementary age children until 1973, when demographic shifts in the area resulted in the school’s transition into DC’s innovative Six School Complex. As part of this interconnected educational system, Hardy School served grades 5-8. DC’s Six School Complex was notable as a pioneering method for its individualized student care, smaller student populations, and special language/arts programs.

In 1996, the Hardy School moved to a different location, prompting community concerns about the sale or destruction of the building. Resistance to the local government selling the property resulted in a 1998 shift in educational hands to the Rock Creek International School, and then again in 2006 to the Lab School, which currently remains in the building.

DC Inventory: March 28, 2019

National Register: June 3, 2019

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Constructed in 1933, architect Anthony A.F. Schmitt designed Holy Redeemer College as a residential home for members of the Redemptorist religious order while they pursued studies at nearby Catholic University of America (CUA). The building has been continuously owned and operated by the religious order since its erection.

The college is architecturally significant as a prominent example of the Romanesque Revival style in the District. Located in the Edgewood neighborhood of DC, the building is distinguishable by a solid masonry exterior, a central tower, and its placement on an artificial rise that echoes the noble stature of a Medieval Italian palazzo.

Historically, the institution is associated with the rise of Catholic establishments and religious culture in the neighborhoods around CUA. The prominence of a thriving Catholic university, various catholic businesses, and an increasingly Catholic demographic in Northeast DC prompted the nickname “Little Rome” for the surrounding area. Between 1900 and 1940, more than fifty Catholic institutions popped up around CUA in the neighborhood of Edgewood.

Holy Redeemer College contributed to the history of this “Little Rome” within the city, and continues to serve its religious community through offering mass and housing clerical workers.

DC Inventory: March 28, 2019

National Register: May 17, 2019

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Designed by Nathan C. Wyeth, Thomas Jefferson Junior High School’s exemplary Georgian Revival Style is evidenced through architectural symmetry, a cupola over the main block, and a two-story entry surround with Doric pilasters. The Junior High School itself was a product of the Five-Year School Building Program Act, passed in 1925. Congress passed this program, which directly impacted Washington, DC, in response to national problems of school overcrowding and school closures brought about by unsuitable building design and construction. The goal of the law was to generate a model of school design that would alleviate these issues—Thomas Jefferson Junior High School stands as one of these early models.

After selection of a building site in 1929, a decade went by before construction began on Thomas Jefferson Junior High School. Funds were delayed as a result of the Great Depression and legal disputes over the site’s location. The school was opened in 1940.

Thomas Jefferson Junior High School is historically significant as a representation of national and local efforts through the DC Board of Education to improve the physical condition and educational quality of American schools. As one of the last schools to be designed in the Georgian Revival style in the District, Thomas Jefferson Junior High School is architecturally significant and demonstrates exemplary design. It remains a valuable educational and community resource as the current site for Jefferson Middle School Academy.

DC Inventory: January 28, 2021

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The Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostles was founded in 1858 with the purpose of converting non-Catholic Americans to Catholicism. To this end, the Paulists established their own educational curriculum to ordain priests at Saint Paul the Apostle Church in New York. Upon the establishment of the Catholic University of America, the Paulists transferred their seminary to DC, building Saint Thomas Aquinas College on the university grounds. In 1911, with a desire for independence from the university and a need for more space, the Paulists purchased twenty-five acres near the school, known as the Stewart property for its nineteenth-century owner. The new Saint Thomas Aquinas College opened in 1914. It was formally dedicated in 1916, at which time it was renamed St. Paul’s College. Students lived, studied and worshipped in the building according to a rigorous discipline.

This original building was designed by the firm of Frederick V. Murphy (1879-1958) and Walter B. Olmsted (1871-1937) and was one of the architecture firm’s first major commissions. The firm would go on to establish itself as a prominent practice, gaining notoriety primarily for its work with the Catholic Church and associated institutions, including numerous buildings on the campuses of the Catholic University and Georgetown University. In addition to Murphy’s and Olmsted’s work at Catholic University, where they designed at least eight educational buildings, dormitories, the gym and the library, the firm produced many other churches, convents, and government, commercial and residential buildings in DC and beyond.

As St. Paul’s work expanded during the next decades, so too did the college building. In several phases of construction, beginning in the 1930s, the school extended its main block and added perpendicular rear wings, forming the building footprint that exists today. These wings accommodated a convent, additional residential quarters, a new chapel, and a dining area. All were designed by different architects whose designs were deferential to the original Murphy and Olmsted building.

DC Inventory: November 16, 2017

National Register: September 13, 2018

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Roosevelt High School was founded in 1890 as Business High School, then DC’s only institution devoted to instruction in business. The co-educational and segregated school had an itinerant early history until it moved into its first purpose-built home on the 800 block of Rhode Island Avenue NW in 1906. Like the city’s manual training schools, the business program proved a successful model. With increased development and population growth after World War I, the school became crowded and remained so for many years. In 1920, the Board of Education petitioned the District Commissioners to purchase a site on which to build a new and expanded business school. Congress appropriated the necessary funds for the new Business High School in 1926, but the school change from a business to a general high school in an effort by the Board of Education to adopt a more well-rounded, college preparatory curriculum.

Designed by Albert L. Harris, Roosevelt High School is an impressive example of the Colonial Revival style, with a five-part plan consisting of a central pavilion and two side wings connected by single-story arcades. The building is sited facing 13th Street as the street rises in elevation between Upshur and Alison Streets. The central pavilion is a long rectangle with a central projecting gable and a low hipped roof, capped by a wood steeple. The side pavilions, which houses the gymnasium and auditorium, feature projecting two-story porticos.

Between 1977 and 1980, Roosevelt High School was expanded and renovated. In 2016, it was again renovated and enlarged as part of a school modernization program. This 2016 work included the enclosure of the central courtyard to create an atrium, and the construction of an entry foyer on the east side of the gymnasium wing. It also included the restoration of the cupola, and the hyphens.

DC Inventory: September 27, 2018

National Register: December 3, 2018

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The rapid development of Petworth in the three decades after 1900 meant that it needed new schools. Until the early 1920s, there was only a single elementary school in the neighborhood. Addressing what has been characterized as a crisis in school overcrowding would become the principal mission of a new superintendent of schools, Dr. Frank Ballou, and the Office of the Municipal Architect. DC introduced an experimental junior high school to the former Central High building in early 1919 and soon adopted the practice generally. The original McKinley Manual Training School was converted to Shaw Junior High in 1922, and Petworth and Eckington received their own junior highs in 1923. With the Five-Year School Building Program Act in 1925, DC emulated dozens of other cities that established several hundred junior highs in the first half of the 1910s. The impetus was as much overcrowding as pedagogical. The junior high school relieved congestion in neighborhood schools by skimming off the higher grades from several, and putting the pupils into a centralized, thoroughly modern facility without having to disrupt and expand each of the elementary schools.  Doing so also constituted a Progressive-era reform of the system, recognizing the particular challenges of teaching children that had reached puberty and holding back the ninth-graders from immersion among older students. The junior highs also incorporated shops for vocational training, giving them the ability to set students on academic or vocational tracks early—often useful, but also a fraught proposition.   Funded, designed and constructed simultaneously, DC's first purpose-built junior high schools—Eckington's Langley Junior High and Petworth's MacFarland Junior High—are nearly identical, especially in their facades. Relatively flat with the exception of the towers, a cornice and pilasters, their design suggests both cost-consciousness and a deference to the high schools as the most elaborate edifices in the system. Architect Albert L. Harris (1869-1934) designed the new schools, which resembled each other in plan, even if the same sections might have different uses. MacFarland's permanent gymnasium was to be in a separate wing, mirrored by a classroom wing, but the latter was not erected until 1925, and the gym finished only in 1932. These wings completed Harris’s initial vision, observing the same strict symmetry as the main block. This design anticipated Harris' "extensible school" model of the 1930s, programmed for expansion into side wings as the need arose or funds became available. The same lack of funds that delayed construction of the wings slowed efforts generally to keep up with the growth of the school-age population in Petworth and surrounding neighborhoods; after MacFarland opened, elementary students were still in portable classrooms in Petworth, Park View, and Brightwood Park.

DC Inventory: September 27, 2018

National Register: December 3, 2018

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