Built in 1801 by Philip Barton Key, the Federal-style Woodley Mansion is notable for its many brushes with figures instrumental in American history. Key, himself the uncle of "Star-Spangled Banner" author Francis Scott Key and a member of Congress, based the design for the house on Woodley Lodge in Reading, England.
Owing to its location in the calmer, wooded areas that surrounded the bustling downtown, Woodley Mansion was a desirable retreat from the noise and commotion of the rest of the city. President Martin Van Buren, upon assuming office in 1837, took to renting Woodley during the summers to escape the heat of DC, and Grover Cleveland, returning to office in 1893, did the same with a recently modernized Woodley. The last individual to own the mansion was Henry L. Stimson, best known for his work as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Secretary of War during World War II. Upon his death, Stimson left the house to Phillips Academy, Andover, his own alma mater; Phillips Academy subsequently sold it to the Maret School in 1952.
Founded in the 1910s by Marthe, Louise, and Jeanne Maret, three French sisters who had taught internationally, the Maret School continues to occupy the Woodley Mansion today.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
]]>Western High School is among the city’s grandest Classical Revival school buildings, poised like a temple of learning on the heights above Georgetown. Built in between 1897 and 1898, it is one of the city’s first buildings constructed specifically for high school use. The design, by architect Harry B. Davis, is notable not just for its monumental Ionic portico and rejection of Victorian style, but also for its landscaped setting—an innovation attributable to the mature landscape that already existed on the site, a former estate known as The Cedars.
Organized in 1890 and first housed at the old Curtis School on O Street, the school originally served white students in the western section of the District and suburbs. In 1974, the former Western High School became the Duke Ellington School for the Arts and accepted its first students in the arts . Two years later, in 1976, it graduated its last regular high school class.
DC Inventory: May 23, 2002National Register: July 25, 2003
]]>Built between 1914 and 1916, Cardozo High School is the work of William B. Ittner, a nationally prominent school architect from St. Louis. The Elizabethan-style building and athletic facilities were constructed on an on extraordinary terraced and landscaped site with commanding views over the city.
The school's extensive specialized facilities reflected the progressive educational philosophy of fostering student health and social welfare in addition to academic needs. It served as the prototype for subsequent public schools, and embodies the origins of the city's high schools. It is a building of extraordinary architectural significance characterized by a large site incorporating extensive recreation areas, flexible design facilitating future expansion, open plan allowing for natural lighting and ventilation, and restricted building height. It was the sixth building in the District constructed as a high school, according more attention by the national press than any other school in the District. Also, Central High serves as a microcosm of public school history in the Nation's Capital, reflecting the evolution of the schools from a racially dual to a unified system.
In 1950 the DC Board of Education had transferred the Central High School building to Cardozo High School, then housed in crowded conditions at the old Business High School building (9th Street and Rhode Island Avenue, NW). Central High School became Cardozo High School starting the fall of 1950. Black students were admitted on the eve of desegregation in Washington, DC. By the time Cardozo High School moved into the Central building, it was still predominantly a business school. Expanded facilities permitted the school to bolster its technical and academic programs as well as its student activities and after-school clubs. By the 1960s, with the abolition of the track system, Cardozo High School became a comprehensive senior high school.
Cardozo Senior High, today known as Cardozo Education Campus, serves as a memorial to Francis L. Cardozo, the prominent late-19th century African American educator and principal of M Street High School.
DC Inventory: June 19, 1991National Register: September 30, 1993
]]>One of only a few extant rural schools in Washington, this four-room schoolhouse, built in 1923, serves as a link and memorial to the vanished post-Civil War community of Black refugees and freedmen that grew up around the city’s Civil War fortifications. Built across from Battery Kemble on a road that still retains its character as a rural lane, the Chain Bridge Road School replaced an 1865 frame schoolhouse on the site.
Although a product of the prominent and prolific Municipal Architect Albert Harris, the school is atypical of his work, and much plainer than its contemporaries. The hip-roofed building is poured-in-place concrete on the first story, and frame on the upper story, uniformly clad in stucco, with large ganged multi-pane windows and a Colonial Revival entry surround.
In 1940, the 17-year-old building was closed, and its students transferred in mid-year to the Phillips-Wormley School in Georgetown, following a petition that had circulated among the white residents of the suburbanizing area, which cited dubious claims of declining enrollment and poor conditions.
DC Inventory: June 27, 2002
National Register: December 9, 2003
]]>The Alexander Crummell School, built between 1910 and 1911, is located in Ivy City. Municipal Architect Snowden Ashford designed the building in 1910 in a personalized Renaissance style, and construction was carried out the following year by Allan T. Howlson. As built in 1911, it was an early extensible six-classroom building, and the addition of a second story at the rear of the building, built according to the original plans, followed in 1932. The school was named in honor of Alexander Crummell, the noted African American clergyman, activist, educator, and founder of the American Negro Academy.
The red brick Alexander Crummell School is two stories high and three bays wide with high English basement and full attic. Entrances are located in these central pavilions in the nearly identical northeast and southeast elevations, the former for girls and the latter for boys. The girls' entrance serves as the primary entrance, and the southeast facade, facing Gallaudet Street, is the principal facade. The Alexander Crummell School graduated its last class in 1972.
For years, the Crummell School sat vacant and in a neglected and deteriorating state. It is currently slated for renovation into a community center for the Ivy City area.
DC Inventory: May 23, 2002
National Register: July 25, 2003
]]>The Nathaniel Parker Gage School was attended by students in the LeDroit Park, Bloomingdale, and Eckington neighborhoods and also came to serve as an important community meeting place and recreation venue. Named for educator Nathaniel Parker Gage, who served as a supervising principal in the D.C. Public School system for decades, the building memorializes the excellence in teaching methods that Gage modeled.
Designed by architect Lemuel W. Norris, the original portion of the Gage School was constructed in 1904-1905. An addition was constructed in 1908, designed by Municipal Architect Snowden Ashford. In recent decades, the school has been converted into condominiums, but its exterior preserves its historic appearance.
DC Inventory: October 26, 2004
National Register: November 19, 2008
]]>The Rutherford B. Hayes School is a large red brick school building constructed in 1897. It was designed by Charles E. Burden in a unique Italianate style characterized by twin entry towers and round-arched openings.
The Hayes School was one of the first of the city’s public school buildings to be designed under the system of private architects working under the supervision of the Building Inspector, as part of a program to improve the appearance of the city's public schools. Previously, the Office of the Inspector of Buildings had been responsible for designing all public schools in DC, and by the mid-1890s, the Inspector's simple pattern for a Romanesque Revival style four-room school, constructed out of red brick, was widely regarded as ugly. In response to criticism, the Building Inspector began hiring private architects to design the schools instead. The Hayes School was among the first products of this shift.
The Hayes School now houses the DC Office on Aging's Hayes Senior Wellness Center.
DC Inventory: December 18, 2003
]]>Erected between 1817 and 1827 by the first United States Register of the Treasury, Joseph Nourse (1754-1841), The Highlands is a late-Georgian styled home. The Nourse family, who owned and lived in the house for a century, were prominent Washingtonians, counting among their friends Dolley Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other figures of national importance. Since its construction in the early nineteenth century, the house saw significant alterations in 1840 and again in 1935. In the twentieth century, The Highlands became the residence of President Woodrow Wilson’s personal physician, Dr. Cary T. Grayson (1878-1938), and later the home of CIA Director Allen Dulles (1893-1969). Today, the house serves as the administrative offices of the Sidwell Friends School, where President Nixon’s daughter, President Clinton’s daughter, President Obama’s daughters, and President Joe Biden’s grandchildren attended school. DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)National Register: March 16, 1972
]]>Founded in 1864, Immaculate Conception was the first mission church of Saint Patrick’s, organized to serve the Roman Catholic population in the then-sparsely settled area north of Mount Vernon Square. Immaculate Conception’s establishment reflects the growth of the Irish immigrant population in DC and presages the rapid postwar expansion of the city north of Massachusetts Avenue. Additionally, it is associated with notable pastors such as its founder, Rev. J. Walter, who was the confessor and defender of Mary Surratt, the woman put to death on co-conspirator charges after Lincoln’s assassination.
When the original church building was constructed between 1864 and 1865, it was surrounded by only a few buildings along dirt roads, and cows wandered the streets. With the construction of the O Street Market and the Seventh Street streetcar line, however, the area lost some of its former "Cow Town" feel and gradually became more developed. The new Immaculate Conception Church, built between 1870 and 1874 to accommodate the growing congregation, became part of an urban community.
After much of this area was destroyed during the events of 1968, Monsignor Joshua Mundell of Immaculate Conception worked to stabilize the neighborhood, encouraging church and federal government collaborations to build modern, affordable housing, including the Immaculate Conception Apartments.
DC Inventory: July 24, 1968 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
Nomination expanded on November 21, 2002 to include school, rectory, and residence
National Register: September 17, 2003
]]>Founded in 1870 as the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth, M Street High School navigated multiple makeshift locations until 1890 when Congress earmarked $112,000 for the construction of a dedicated building. The school ultimately found its permanent home at 128 M Street, NW in a red-brick structure, designed by the Office of the Building Inspector. Its facade is adorned with colonial accents and the interior includes a rectangular floor plan.
Under the visionary leadership of its principals, M Street High School defied societal norms and provided a rigorous curriculum that surpassed the offerings of many white schools. The curriculum was meticulously organized into tracks – academic, scientific, technical and business – offering a diverse array of subjects. M Street High School's graduates were not merely students; they were pioneers, earning spots in leading colleges and universities across the nation despite the systemic challenges of segregation.
The school’s innovative principals included: Francis L. Cardozo, Sr., who rose from adversity to become the Treasurer of South Carolina; Dr. Winfield Scott Montgomery, a medical doctor born to enslaved parents who fought for his education; Anna J. Cooper, an author, educator, and civil rights activist; Judge Robert H. Terrell, Harvard graduate and the first black judge in the District of Columbia; and William Tecumseh Sherman Jackson, who fostered excellence in academics and student athletics. M Street’s last principal, Edward Christopher Williams, made an impact as a library sciences scholar, leaving a legacy that extended beyond M Street into other Black educational institutions, such as Howard University.
The majority of M Street High School’s faculty held advanced degrees. Prime examples include Carter G. Woodson, a self-taught scholar turned prominent historian, founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, laying the groundwork for celebrating Black history and contributions. Christian Fleetwood, organizer of the Cadets Corps, set the stage for discipline and leadership, exemplified through the Junior ROTC. Gordon David Houston's pioneering work in teaching Old English literature showcased the diversity of academic pursuits at M Street, as did his later role as Dunbar High School's principal. Hugh M. Browne came to M Street with a degree from Princeton’s Theological School as an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church. He taught physics at M Street High School and showcased his talent as an inventor by patenting a device to prevent water backflow in cellars. Garnet C. Wilkinson, a graduate, instructor, and later one of Dunbar High School’s principals, shaped Washington's reputation for black educational excellence, emphasizing vocational education and the need for specialized schools. Mary Church Terrell worked for civil rights and women’s equality, becoming the first black woman on the District of Columbia’s Board of Education.
M Street High School’s commitment to exceptional leadership produced alumni who would go on to influence American academia, law, architecture, medicine, and art. Graduate Nannie Helen Burroughs founded the National Training School for Girls in 1908, empowering African-American women through education. Charles Hamilton Houston, a legal luminary, mentored Thurgood Marshall and played a pivotal role in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. Hilyard Robinson, a modernist architect, shaped DC's skyline with iconic buildings like the Langston Terrace Dwellings and Howard University’s campus. Dr. Iona Rollin Whipper, a skilled physician specializing in obstetrics and one of the only African American female physicians of her time, advocated for women’s healthcare in various parts of America. Dr. Whipper created a home for pregnant Black teen mothers in DC and supported educational initiatives in the rural South. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander earned the first Ph.D. in economics for an African American and became the first Black woman to practice law in Pennsylvania. Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., the country’s first Black brigadier general, symbolized progress for African Americans in the U.S. Army during the New Deal era. James R. Europe, a renowned ragtime and jazz musician, led the African American music scene in New York City. Robert C. Weaver, a gifted economist and policy maker, became the first Black man to serve in the presidential cabinet as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
As the school's population grew, the original building could no longer house the student body. In 1916, the school moved to a new location, Dunbar High School. The original M Street building underwent transformations, serving as M Street Junior High School, Terrell Junior High School, and finally, the Leon L. Perry Middle School.
Today, the M Street High School building, known today as the M Street Center (formerly Perry Center), stands as a historic landmark. Designated on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, the building has been used in a variety of ways as a homeless shelter, a food distribution center, and, for the last two decades, a community services center.
The story of M Street High School transcends the physicality of its red-brick structure; it symbolizes the triumph of education over adversity, the resilience of a community, and the enduring legacy of black excellence.
DC Inventory: November 21, 1978
National Register: October 23, 1986
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