Three sites located in Rock Creek Park mark a historic settlement of African Americans following the Civil War. Washington, DC, was established as a slave-holding district in 1790. Prior to its establishment and the urban design of Pierre L’Enfant, DC mostly consisted of farmland and large plantations. The nation’s capital officially moved to DC in 1800 and the construction of sites like the U.S. Capitol and White House led to an increase in the enslaved population. By the early 19th century, a quarter of DC’s residents were enslaved. In 1850, markets for enslaved people moved into Alexandria and other parts of Virginia, and free African Americans started to surpass the number of enslaved. By 1860, there were 14,316 African Americans living in DC and around 77% of them were free.

At the start of the Civil War, the establishment of forts and encampments in and around the Rock Creek Valley, just north of present-day Military Road NW, cleared the woodland and led to African Americans farming in the area. Following the Civil War, there was an increase in freed African Americans migrating from the South, which led to the establishment of multiple settlements where the forts had been located. Broad Branch, Rock Creek, and Reno were three of the larger settlements that grew rapidly after the war. The settlements at Broad Branch and Rock Creek included small dwellings and plots of land for gardening, while Reno was advertised as planned “elegant building lots”. Supporting the residents in all three settlements were churches, schools, and societies, which helped facilitate a close community for those living there. All three settlements were connected through the Rock Creek Baptist Church, established in 1872. Many of the residents worked as laborers, carpenters, cooks, blacksmiths, teachers, laundresses, and farmers. During the 20th century, however, these settlements began to disappear, due to underfunding, urban development, and forced displacement.

Three dwellings in the Rock Creek settlement were located using the records of the Rock Creek Park Commissioners and archaeological evidence. These dwellings were the homes of Sarah Whitby, Charles Dickson, and Jane Dickson, and all three were listed as tenants in 1892. Many of the homes had men listed as the heads of the household, but Jane and Sarah are exceptions to this.

Jane Dickson and her nine children lived in a dwelling with four rooms and an outhouse and paid $6 in rent, while Sarah Whitby worked as a laundress and lived in a dwelling with two rooms and a stable and paid $3 in rent. Charles Dickson also lived in a dwelling with two rooms and a stable and paid $3 in rent. All three of them had small gardens. Unfortunately, urban development around Rock Creek Park and the push for recreational use of the park – which was formally established in 1890 – likely displaced these three families by the turn of the 20th century. These three sites and other rural dwellings are important in understanding the development of the African American community in DC in the second half of the 19th century, and provide important background for the future settlement patterns that occurred in the 20th century. The documentation and designation creates a snapshot into the lives of African Americans at these rural home sites, which are not publically accessible.

African American Rural Home Sites in Washington, DC, 1865-1900 MPS

National Register: May 29, 2024

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Built by DC’s Alley Dwelling Authority in 1942-1943, Barry Farm is historically significant as a center of Black activism in the 1960s. Named for original owner James Barry, a Washington city merchant and councilman who purchased the land in the 1860s. In 1868, officials in the Freedmen's Bureau obtained the property for the 40,000 refugees from slavery in the District who had arrived during the Civil War. Barry Farm became a thriving Black community that housed teachers, lawyers, politicans, and nurses. Well-known residents include Charles R. Douglass (Frederick Douglass's second son), Solomon Brown (elected to the House of Delegates and the Smithsonian's sole African American employee for numerous years), John Moss (attorney and justice of the peace), and Georgiana Simpson (one of the first Black women to receive a doctoral degree).

In 1941, the government took 34 acres of the community through eminent domain to create the Barry Farm Housing Development. At the time of its construction in 1943, the Barry Farm Dwellings were the largest subsidized housing complex for African Americans with 442 units. Connected by walkways on a parallel street layout typical of low-rent housing built during World War II, each unit contained between two to six bedrooms. Shared communal spaces were plentiful amidst the plain homes, and the National Capital Housing Authority (NCHA) referenced the “unrationed” air and light available to incoming residents.

Families began to move into the units as early as November 1942, with priority given first to individuals displaced by war-related projects, and secondly to those in the military or war-related jobs. In the 1950s, multiple children from the Barry Farm Dwellings were involved in a lawsuit against DC’s segregated public schools. The case, Bolling v. Sharpe, was initially dismissed by local courts—but in 1952, the Supreme Court asked to hear it in conjunction with Brown v. Board. Barry Farm residents had worked diligently to raise money for their legal expenses by organizing raffles and fundraising dinners. Barry Farm residents proved essential to the larger case against segregation, and celebrated their civil rights victory in 1954 when Brown (and its associated cases, including Bolling) determined segregation to be a violation of both 5th and 14th amendment rights.

As the city began to transform at the beginning of the 1960s, redevelopment, “slum clearance,” and urban renewal programs displaced large proportions of African Americans. Demolition of Black neighborhoods forced many low-income African American families to seek refuge in public housing. In 1962, 94 percent of 5,000 families waitlisted for public housing were Black. Unfortunately, after only a little over 20 years of existence, the Barry Farm Dwellings were in incredible disrepair by the mid-1960s. Years of government neglect and a lack of consistent (if any) repairs to the buildings had introduced internal damage to the structures and left the community overwhelmed by cockroaches, rats, leaky faucets, burnt-out street lights, and crumbling ceilings.

Residents began to come together to demand better government treatment, forming the Band of Angels, a community activist group, in the mid-1960s. The Angels successfully achieved a $1.5 million renovation and ultimately formed the nucleus of the Citywide Welfare Alliance, which boasted 1,300 members from across the city by 1970. Etta Mae Horn, a resident of the Barry Farm Dwellings and civil rights activist who campaigned for welfare support, women’s parental and healthcare rights, and economic equality for African Americans, was essential in shifting the civil rights movement away from an emphasis on equal access to an emphasis on economic concerns. After a meeting with Etta Horn and the National Welfare Rights Organization, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his first speech announcing the Poor People’s Campaign that would “establish that the real issue is not violence or nonviolence but poverty and neglect.”

Barry Farm was also a focal point for youth organizing in the 1960s, with the formation of Rebels With A Cause—a group of mostly young men who began agitating for community concerns and protesting against discriminatory policing and brutal police behavior. In 1966, Stokely Carmichael visited Barry Farm to attend a rally of 150 people; in 1967, well-known performer Eartha Kitt toured Barry Farm and testified with the Rebels before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee. The Rebels gained national attention for their protests against police brutality and their establishment of community services (such as daycares, cultural activities, and employment assistance). They were viewed by many as a model for youth organizing in the city.

The Barry Farm Dwellings held a significant and diverse role in the Civil Rights activism of the 1950s and 1960s, and the remaining structures continue to highlight this history of essential community organizing in the District. By 2018, most of the Barry Farm Dwellings were demolished—but the units that remain are representative of the community as a whole. The structures remains under the ownership and administration of the D.C. Housing Authority.

Barry Farm Dwellings also became a popular spot for go-go music, especially after the formation of the Junkyard Band, a group formed by neighborhood children and teenagers. The band sparked interest because of their young ages and the “instruments” that they played, which included using soda cans, public benches, and anything that would help them create sounds. Their namesake matched their ingenuity to create music with materials not traditionally used as instruments. Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers also mentored the band, and they played shows throughout DC as a homegrown, popular go-go band.

DC Inventory: January 30, 2020

This site is a stop on the Exploring DC's Go-Go and Punk Music Scenes Tour.

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Built in 1828, this home served as Benjamin Ogle Tayloe's residence and a social, intellectual, and cultural center for the political elite. Described as a "salon" for scholarly discourse and a space for high-society gatherings, the Federal style home exemplified early Washingtonian power.

As a member of one of Washington's wealthiest slaveholding families, Benjamin Ogle Tayloe almost certainly utilized enslaved labor in the construction and management of the home. Much of his personal wealth stemmed from the inheritance and control of cotton plantations run through enslaved labor in Virginia and Alabama.

Following Tayloe's death and subsequent shifts of home ownership, the space was sold to Senator J. Donald Cameron (R-PA). The home continued to play host to a variety of political icons and offered a convenient space for important diplomatic meetings. It was referred to as the "Little White House" during the time of Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, who often had breakfast in the home over complex discussions of contemporary issues. An addition, designed by the architectural firm of Hornblower & Marshall, was completed in 1893.

From 1915 to 1917, the home served as the headquarters of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (National Woman's Party), led by activist Alice Paul. During these years — shortly before the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 — marches and demonstrations, including picketing at the nearby White House by the "silent sentinels," were planned and led by the organization. Infamously, many women's suffrage activists were arrested and sent to the Occoquan workhouse in Lorton, Virginia, where they were subjected to brutal treatment.

From 1917 to 1952, the Cosmos Club would occupy the home. The building then served briefly as NASA's headquarters during the space agency's early years. The building avoided demolition in the 1960s, thanks to support for preservation from Jackie Kennedy — an early advocate in the historic preservation movement. The building is a notable landmark of Lafayette Square and is sometimes referred to as the "Cameron" or "Tayloe-Cameron House." Today, the space is a part of the National Courts Building Complex.

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

National Register: November 2, 2023

Within Lafayette Square Historic District

This site is included in the Capital City Slavery Tour as a site of enslavement for five to seven individuals and likely construction through enslaved labor. For further information on slavery in the District, view DC Preservation League's Capital City Slavery Digital Exhibit.

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While the Buchanan School Plaza in the Capitol Hill neighborhood has shrunk greatly since its construction, the original playground and park facilities built in 1968 represented major changes in playground design, concepts of play, and urban beautification projects in the United States. Funded and facilitated by First Lady Lady Bird Johnson and the Committee for a More Beautiful Capital, the plaza combined the talents of landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg, architect Simon Breines, and sculptor William Tarr to create the once highly-praised park. Designed as an “Adventure Style” playground popular in the 1960s and 1970s, the structures in the park used changes in elevation, open-ended structures, and a fluid layout to give children of all ages more freedom in how they played. Additionally, the park featured a multipurpose sunken court that served as a basketball court, ice rink, amphitheater, and more, allowing visitors of all ages to enjoy the space. The Committee first took interest in the land because of its location next to Buchanan Elementary School, which looked to have deteriorated itself, with the existing playground felt barren and uninviting to the neighborhood’s children. After touring the space with future DC mayor Walter Washington, the Committee chose the location as their next beautification project. The park’s creation brought community members together and gave local children a safe space to play, socialize, and gather after school and with parents whenever they liked. The design used changes in elevation and incorporated natural separation rather than walls and fences seen in other parks, creating a more fluid environment for children, teens, and adults to all share the facilities without feeling isolated from one another. The plaza also featured a pavilion that housed an administrative office, snack bar, and bathrooms. The park was bounded by William Tarr’s three sculptures titled Numbers, with the largest standing at 15 feet and the two smaller standing around two feet tall. All three stone sculptures are rectangular in shape and feature carvings on each side and throughout the length of each block. The designs feature geometric shapes, symbols, letters, and characters in other languages at various depths within the stone. The largest stands at the corner of 13th and E St SE, with the other two at the other end of the plaza, now tucked within an alley. The park served the community for many years, but by 1978 it had fallen into disrepair due to a lack of maintenance, as well as Buchanan Elementary School’s closure. Despite the loss, local resident John “Peter Bug” Matthews successfully petitioned the DC government to transform the plaza’s pavilion into a shoe repair shop and training center, which still stands today. Known as the Peter Bug Shoe Academy, the shop trains students in shoe repair and operates as a business. The shop has gained attention and a reputation within the community, with Matthews acting as a community leader for many years. Of the park’s original structures, only five remain: the sunken court, the pavilion (now Peter Bug Shoe Academy), and Tarr’s three sculptures. The land has since been divided into various housing developments, slowly chipping away at the park’s old footprint. The site remains as one of the few surviving examples of the architects’ Adventure style playgrounds, as many others around the country have also been demolished or redesigned.

DC Inventory: November 17, 2022

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Designed and built by the prominent construction firm Stone & Webster, the Buzzard Point Power Plant stands as an emblem of technological and artistic advancement in Southwest Washington. While various individuals owned the property and attempted to settle the area prior to the development of the land, the area remained largely undeveloped and unloved by the District community. Even as early as the 1800s, residents disliked the area as it was often filled with a larger than usual amount of black-winged buzzards. Additional health hazards, such as the routine dumping of refuse and sewer system runoff in the area, contributed to a less than sterling reputation for Buzzard Point.

Various proposals to turn the area into a canal, railroad center, trash incinerator, and private factory all failed—until the construction of the PEPCO Buzzard Point Power Plant. With architect George R. Wryen on staff, construction began in October 1932 and concluded by the next year, when PEPCO held an inauguration to open the $4 million dollar building. The plant was expanded into the 1940s, as its increased capacity helped power the war effort at the nearby Washington Navy Yard. The power plant is designed in the Art Moderne industrial style, with a brick and stone-clad structural system of reinforced steel and concrete. The streamlined building is especially notable for the three octagonal chimneystacks above its west elevation. The monument-like feel of the structure can also be attributed to the clerestory at the center of the low-slung roof.

DC Inventory: February 24, 2022

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The Capitol Power Plant Pump House was completed in 1910 to provide water for the Capitol Power Plant, also completed in 1910, approximately 1 mile north at E Street and New Jersey Avenue SE. The pump house's water was used for the power plant's coal-fired boilers — with coal delivered via the nearby railroad line. This steam power provided electricity and heat for the U.S. Capitol Building, Senate and House office buildings, and Library of Congress (Jefferson Building).

Within a short period of time, new tunnels were constructed, expanding the electricity and heat to additional buildings, including Union Station. Demand for air conditioning in the 1930s led to the construction of an addition to the pump house in 1935, as well as an expansion of the power plant.

Nonetheless, starting in the 1950s, the pump house became obsolete, as the US Capitol Complex opted for electrical power from PEPCO and municipal water. In 1961, the pump house was transferred to the DC Government, where it sat abandoned until the early 1990s.

Since 1993, the former pump house has been used by Earth Conservation Corps (ECC), a non-profit devoted to youth development and protecting the environment, specifically the Anacostia River and other area watersheds. This organization, established in 1989, provides opportunities for District residents between the ages of 17 and 25. In 1993, ECC collaborated with Mayor Marion Barry and his administration to obtain a lease on the building. Prior to ECC moving in, the U.S. Navy Seabees stabilized and rehabilitated the once-industrial building, allowing it to become the community anchor and nature center it is today. At the time, a concrete platform was added. Murals were also added in the 1990s.

For more than 30 years, ECC has engaged youth through its environmental initiatives and programming. ECC members, interns, and volunteers have helped clean up and restore the once polluted and neglected river.

The former pump house, since renamed the Monique Johnson Anacostia River Center (Johnson was a founding ECC member), is a successful example of adaptive reuse along the river. Over the years, the Monique Johnson Center has helped facilitate many public and private partnerships, including with Anacostia Riverkeeper. The building is managed by the DC Department of Parks & Recreation.

The former pump house sits just off shore, above the Anacostia River. The building, which is connected to Diamond Teague Park and the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail by a pier, is supported by pilings encased in a concrete foundation.

The one-story building is constructed of brick masonry and composed of two sections: the original 1910 building facing the river, with a hip-roof clad in terra-cotta tile, and the 1935 addition facing the shore, slightly shorter with a flat-roof. The original building is more ornate than the addition and was influenced by the Mediterranean Revival style.

The 1910 portion also had a tall opening that allowed for machinery and equipment to be taken in and out of the interior space. This former opening is visible on the south elevation, facing the river, and has been replaced by a doorway and two large windows. A hoist system is still visible, illustrating the building's once industrial use.

DC Inventory: March 26, 2026

National Register: May 27, 2026

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At a time of Jim Crow ideology and enforced segregation, Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) pioneered the documentation of African American life and the recognition of African American contributions to US history. Born to enslaved parents, Woodson was self-educated until he began formal schooling at the age of twenty. He received degrees from Berea College and the University of Chicago, and after several years of teaching, travel, and studies abroad, he settled in Washington, DC. In 1912, Woodson became the second African American (after W.E.B. DuBois) to receive a doctorate from Harvard University. In 1915, he founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, and a year later, the Journal of Negro History, with offices from his home. The journal continues to publish today as the Journal of African American History. Before retiring from teaching in 1922, Woodson taught at M Street and Armstrong High Schools and at Howard University, where he served as Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Head of the Graduate Faculty. In 1926, Woodson was instrumental in creating Negro History Week, which is now observed as Black History Month. In 1937, he founded the Negro History Bulletin, to reach a broader audience than the academic journal. At the time of his death, he was working on a six-volume Encyclopedia Africana. Over a lifetime of scholarship, Woodson significantly contributed to Black studies, and the historic site designation of his home confirms his place within history. DC Inventory: March 3, 1979

National Register: May 11, 1976

National Historic Landmark: May 11, 1976

National Historic Landmark (Updated Documentation): December 11, 2023

National Historic Site: February 27, 2006

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As more people moved to DC in the early 20th century, newly-established neighborhoods, like Chevy Chase, drew local businesses, including banks to deposit and withdraw money, to support the neighborhoods’ local residents. Many banks were located downtown, but as more people moved to suburban areas of the District, neighborhood savings banks became more convenient for those living farther away from the city center. The Chevy Chase Savings Bank was one such neighborhood bank, meant to provide services for families and the local businesses.

The Italian Renaissance Revival style building designed by Arthur B. Heaton is the only surviving bank of two that he designed in this particular style (the other, now demolished, was the Washington Loan & Trust Company’s West End Branch at 17th and G streets NW). The Chevy Chase neighborhood — which is located along the state line and encompasses residential blocks in both the District of Columbia and Montgomery County, Maryland — dates back to the 1880s and its establishment as a streetcar suburb. Because of limitations on commercial use, the commercial strip along Connecticut Avenue NW evolved in a unique way. Due to different ownership along Connecticut Avenue’s west side — the east side being owned by the Chevy Chase Land Company, which was bound by these limitations — a commercial strip was able to develop along the corridor’s west side blocks, within Connecticut Avenue Terrace. The east side of Connecticut Avenue, on the other hand, would not gain its commercial character until the early 1950s. Unfortunately, banks, like other businesses at the time, practiced and promoted discriminatory policies and tactics. These practices also extended to racially restrictive covenants in housing, which were found throughout the city’s neighborhoods, including in Chevy Chase.

The Chevy Chase Savings Bank opened in 1921 in an office located at the southwest corner of McKinley Street and Connecticut Avenue. However, only one year later, the bank purchased the property (one block south at Morrison Street) that the current bank building stands on, expanding their offices as the neighborhood grew. Its new, larger location, which was built in 1926, worked well for private clients and small businesses, rooting itself as a trusted institution in the neighborhood and city. The new bank building, with its sandstone and granite exterior, featured medallions of Pierre L’Enfant, George Washington, and the 1920s Peace Dollar (both the obverse and reverse), hinting at a wave of nostalgia for American history during the time of construction.

The building was constructed one year after the completion of the adjacent Chevy Chase Arcade, further establishing the Chevy Chase commercial strip. These and other businesses along the Connecticut Avenue corridor, such as the Chevy Chase Theater (Avalon Theater), built in 1922, supported the surrounding residential neighborhoods, which were quickly developing. However, in 1933, as the Great Depression continued to intensify, a national bank “holiday” was declared and banks were closed throughout the country. The bank soon reopened as a branch of Riggs National Bank. The consolidation helped stabilize the bank, and allowed its customers to return without fear of losing their money.

The continued trust in the bank led to an expansion of the building in 1958. This expansion added three additional bays to the western portion of the bank building, forming an arcade of six arched windows along Morrison Street. The architectural firm, Mills, Petticord, and Mills matched the exterior of the addition to the original designed by Heaton, but records indicate that the interior of the bank was extensively renovated. Christian Wohlgemuth, Jr., constructed both the original building and the addition.

It continued as a Riggs Bank branch until 2005, when Riggs was sold to PNC Bank, a Pittsburgh-based company. It continues to operate under PNC.

DC Inventory: January 26, 2023

National Register: April 27, 2023

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Vizcaya Apartments, formerly known as the Chilchester Arms, is a conventional low-rise apartment building, built in 1936. Designed with Moderne stylistic elements, such as geometric brick and stone ornamentation and Deco-inspired setbacks, these elements illustrate the restrained emergence of architect George T. Santmyers’ (1889-1960) style away from strictly classical revival forms. The location of the building also reflects the growth of transportation networks and residential construction patterns in the interwar period, as the population of the city expanded north from the center of DC. The building’s location along the bustling corridor of Fourteenth Street is representative of the efficient housing solutions in response to the rapidly expanding DC population. Between World War I and World War II, the federal government’s expansion brought many employees to the area. Without adequate numbers of single-family houses, architects constructed apartment buildings as suitable alternatives, effectively reshaping DC’s once-rural landscape north of Florida Avenue.

DC Inventory: June 8, 2016

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The Columbia Hospital for Women, originally opened in 1866 as a healthcare facility for wives and widows of Civil War soldiers, was the city's birthplace of choice for all races for a century and a half. The hospital was the primary maternity facility in the city and the birthplace of about 275,000 individuals—the vast majority of all persons born in the District of Columbia during the 20th century. Until its closure in 2002, Columbia was also a leading national and international innovator in women and infant health.

Columbia's position as a prominent hospital for childbirth led to many milestones over the years of its existence. In 1919, it established a prenatal care program, and in 1925, it became the first hospital to use babies’ footprints for identification. It was one of the first maternity hospitals to establish nurseries for premature infants, and the first to provide classes for expectant fathers. It was also a leader in the care of children, with its Clinic for Children giving rise to Children’s Hospital.

Columbia Hospital was first located at Thomas Circle, but in 1876 it moved to the present site, where it used the former Maynard Mansion as a nurses’ home. The present five-story structure, built in 1916, overlooks Pennsylvania Avenue. The Italianate design by architect Nathan C. Wyeth is extraordinary for its sculptural complexity, with a design that highlights the importance of light and air in medical thinking of the day.

DC Inventory: December 18, 2002

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