The Sumner School is one of three post-Civil War Black schools in DC and is named in honor of Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts Senator and ardent abolitionist who attempted, unsuccessfully, to ban segregated schools and public facilities in the city. Since its construction in 1871 and 1872, the Sumner School has housed a broad spectrum of the developing Black educational opportunities in the city. The school was one of the first public school buildings erected for the education of Blacks in Washington. Sumner School is built on the site of a school constructed in 1866 under the auspices of the Freedmen's Bureau, with lumber salvaged from barracks.
It is one of a series of award-winning, modern public school buildings constructed by the District of Columbia government during a period of intensive municipal improvement which culminated in Alexander R. Shepherd's remarkable transformation of the city in the early 1870s. The architect of the building was Adolf Cluss, whose work had a major visual impact on the city during one of its most significant periods of development and included virtually all of the public buildings constructed by the city government between 1862 and 1876, as well as a large proportion of both federal and private buildings constructed here in the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s.
The school was awarded the medal for design at the 1873 Vienna Exposition. It served as the headquarters for the Superintendent and Board of Trustees for Colored Public Schools of Washington and Georgetown. It reflects the Second Empire style and was renovated between 1984 and 1985.
The school is the oldest Black public school building still extant that has remained substantially unaltered on both the exterior and interior. The school now houses a museum and archive for DC public school records and artifacts.
DC Inventory: November 21, 1978
National Register: December 20, 1979
]]>The Smithsonian Institution Building was designed by prominent New York architect James Renwick, Jr. and erected between 1847 and 1855 on the Mall. It was built to house the Smithsonian Institution, which had been chartered by Act of Congress in 1846. The Smithsonian was established following the generous bequest of approximately $500,000 by James Smithson, an English scientist and the illegitimate son of the Duke of North Cumberland.
By the terms of the will, Smithson's estate was to pass to his nephew following Smithson's death in 1829. If the nephew should die without direct heirs, the will ordered, the estate was then to become the property of the United States government. The United States acquired the funds when the contested bequest was settled in the British courts in London in 1838 after the death of Smithson's nephew, but disagreements over Smithson's intentions for the money—which he had merely stated was to be used for the "increase and diffusion of knowledge," with no indication as to how this was to be achieved—delayed the chartering of the institution until 1846.
As the first building created for the new institution, this structure—now known as the Castle—was designed to house many types of activities, including a large storage room on the first floor designed for the exchange of scientific publications with other institutions and museums, a suite of rooms for the family of the Institution's Secretary, various natural history research rooms and laboratories, a reading room, a library, and a large lecture room. Two small rooms saw use as a museum of scientific instruments and an art gallery. Both of these rooms were occasionally used as minor lecture rooms for meetings by scientific organizations.
The first story of the building consisted of an enormous room to be used as a museum, although it remained empty in 1855 due to lack of exhibit cases. Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian, referred to this room in 1855 as "in appearance one of the most imposing rooms in this country." The floor of the middle part of this great hall was laid in cut stone, the remaining floor being of wood.
An 1865 fire destroyed much of the young Institution's collection and caused extensive damage to the upper floor of the building. Renovations were completed by Adolf Cluss. With the expansion of the Smithsonian Institution, the original building has come to be used primarily for administrative and visitor services.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: October 15, 1966
National Historic Landmark: January 12, 1965
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