Founded in 1909, the National Training School for Women and Girls educated Black women from around the world. Unlike other prominent Black schools, such as the Tuskegee Institute, the founders did not request money from white donors. Nannie Helen Burroughs, the daughter of formerly enslaved people, piloted the project. Burroughs wanted each student to become “the fiber of a sturdy moral, industrious and intellectual woman.”
Burroughs built the campus of academic, residential and religious buildings and created a vigorous and demanding curriculum of academic and vocational courses. The National Training School offered a unique combination of educational opportunities for African-American young women and girls. The school offered academic training equivalent to the upper grades of high school and community college, religious instruction, and training in domestic arts and vocations. It was the first American institution to offer all of these opportunities within a single educational space.
In 1914, the school constructed the Lincoln Memorial Arch and entry gate to the school grounds at the corner of Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE and 50th Street NE in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of President Lincoln.
The National Training School for Women and Girls has been the headquarters of the Progressive National Baptist Convention since 1978.
National Historic Landmark: July 17, 1991
National Register: July 17, 1991
]]>Known as “Little Ebenezer” in the mid-19th century, the Ebenezer United Methodist Church became one of the first African American congregations on Capitol Hill and the first public school in DC open to African American children. The congregation came together due to racial segregation policies in place at the interracial church: African American and white congregants could attend the same services, but were segregated once inside the church, with African American congregants seated in the galleries of the church. Having outgrown the galleries of their original church, the African American congregants moved to their own church in 1838.
After settling in their new location, the congregation continued to grow and expand its services, including a private school run by the church. However, an 1862 federal law requiring DC public schools to accept African American students transformed the private school into a public school. The school became the first public school for African American children, with Emma V. Brown as its first teacher.
While the existing building was constructed in 1897, the congregation has occupied the same location since their original move six decades earlier. The current building was designed by architects Crump and Palmer in a blend of Romanesque and Neo-Colonial styles. The church still operates out of this building today.
DC Inventory: May 21, 1975
]]>The Whitelaw Hotel showcases an early example of minority real estate development. It was financed and built entirely by African American entrepreneurs, investors, designers, and craftsmen. Associated with prominent businessman and civic leader John Whitelaw Lewis, the Whitelaw is a significant example of the attempt by civic leaders to counter the effects of racial discrimination and economic adversity in the early 20th century. Before Lewis established the Whitelaw, he arrived in the city during 1894 as a bricklayer’s assistant. Through the years he worked his way up the social ladder and in 1913 he founded the Industrial Savings Bank, the first successful African American banking institution in DC.
The building is a notable work of Isaiah T. Hatton, locally trained as one of the nation’s first African American architects. It serves as an example of a large apartment building in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and was important in the expansion of apartment living to a broader middle class. The building is four stories, U-shaped with facades of buff brick and limestone trim, classical details, and a stained glass skylight over the dining room. It was built in 1919 and extensively restored in 1991-1992.
The design and construction of the Whitelaw was very much a collective effort, not only by Lewis and Hatton, but by much of the black community as well. In order to fund his idea, Lewis was able to encourage the African American community to buy twelve dollar shares for the property. When the hotel officially opened on November 24, 1919 it joined other businesses on “Black Broadway” as an important social and cultural space for DC’s African American community. With 25 apartments and 22 rooms hosting a variety of amenities, the Whitelaw was the first first-class hotel in DC for African Americans that provided the marginalized community with permanent housing, public accommodations, and a space for communal events. The Whitelaw’s success continued up until the 1968, when violent protests following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. destroyed homes, businesses, and displaced many from the neighborhood.
The economic and cultural success of Black Broadway had been dealt a major blow and businesses like the Whitelaw felt its effects deeply. Like other businesses, the hotel was not able to bounce back quickly from the event and in the 1970s, it was shut down and abandoned. In the 1980s, the neighborhood was rebuilding itself and businesses were making a comeback in the area. However, a succession of organizations trying to bring life back into the Whitelaw experienced significant obstacles to redevelopment.
In 1990, MANNA, Inc., a non-profit with a goal to help develop housing for low to moderate-income individuals, garnered financial support from both private and public partnerships and restore the Whitelaw. Today, the Whitelaw Hotel once again houses DC residents and is a surviving reminder of the efforts made by black Washingtonians to create communal spaces in the face of segregation.
DC Inventory: September 16, 1992
National Register: July 14, 1993
Within Greater U Street Historic District
This site is a stop on the D.C. Apartment Buildings tour as an example of a Luxury apartment building, as well as a culturally significant apartment building.
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