Eastern High School, located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on the 1700 block of East Capitol Street NE, was constructed between 1921 and 1923 and designed by Municipal Architect Snowden Ashford in the Collegiate Gothic style. Albert Harris, Ashford's successor, supervised the high school's final design and construction.
Eastern High School has a five-part plan and is four-stories tall. It is clad in red brick and limestone. Its most distinctive features are found at its main entrance on East Capitol Street, which includes a two-story porte-cochère, composed of red brick, limestone trim and quoining, lancet arched windows (with limestone tracery and a lattice design), and an entryway through a Gothic arch. Above the main entrance is a sundial, which is flanked by two crenellated towers. There are crenellated parapets above the main entrance and the two bay windows at the west and east ends of the school. These bay windows are also clad in limestone. The school has paired and grouped, three-sash windows (in a nine-by-nine design) with limestone trim and quoining. The horizontality of the building is emphasized through the series of windows and two limestone belt courses.
The original Eastern High School was established in 1890 near Eastern Market. The DC Schoolhouse Commission, established by Congress in 1906, recommended, through its 1908 report, that a new Eastern High School be constructed in accordance with various design principles popular at the time. In the following years, the site on East Capitol Street was chosen for the new high school. In addition to Eastern High School, the report eventaully led to the construction of Central High School (Cardozo Senior High School) (1916), Dunbar High School (1916, demolished in 1977) — with Dunbar constructed for African American students — and McKinley Technical High School (1929).
Snowden Ashford was DC's first Municipal Architect (1909 - 1921). Ashford designed many public school buildings in addition to Eastern, including Dunbar. Ashford often designed in the Collegiate Gothic and Tudor Revival styles, in opposition to the Commission of Fine Arts, which desired Colonial Revival style building designs. Although not designed by Ashford, Central is Elizabethan in design.
Central High School was designed by William B. Ittner, a St. Louis architect hired by Ashford. Ittner's St. Louis high school designs had been well-liked by DC's Schoolhouse Commission — one of these designs being a Collegiate Gothic style high school. This style and its E-shaped floorplan, with single-loaded corridors and dedicated classroom space for specific coursework, were used in the design of Central. Ittner's designs would certainly shape Ashford's designs for Dunbar and Eastern high schools in the coming years.
With its E-shaped floorplan, courtyards, and single-loaded corridors, Eastern High School, constructed between 1921 and 1923, provided plenty of natural light and air circulation — not unlike Central, which had opened in the previous decade.
Courses offered at Eastern included Latin, English, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Botany, Math, Freehand Drawing, Music, Physical Education, Journalism, Drama, Sewing, Food Preparation, and Home Care, in addition to other courses. These courses and subjects corresponded with 100 individual classroom, laboratory, and wood/metal/automobile repair shop spaces. Certain coursework and activities were only available to male students (e.g., Cadets), while other courses were meant for female students (e.g., Home Economics).
In addition to the classroom space for up to 1,800 students, Eastern included a modern auditorium for 1,400, a library, two gyms, handball and tennis courts, a lunchroom, greenhouse, rifle range and armory, printing plant, laundry, and bank, as well as a state-of-the-art steam heating system, an elevator, and more than 3,000 lockers. A stadium and field were completed in 1925, and an addition to the school's rear, housing a gym and classroom space, was completed in 1938.
Following Eastern High School's design and construction, no other public school building in the District would be designed in the Collegiate Gothic style.
After opening in the early 1920s, the neighborhood around Eastern High School continued to grow and, despite a capacity of 1,800 students, Eastern had 3,000 students by 1934. To deal with the overcrowding, students east of the Anacostia River were moved to Anacostia High School.
In 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and Bolling v. Sharpe, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that public schools be desegregated. Bolling, a case specific to DC, ruled that racial segregation in the DC public school system was unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. This led to new school boundaries. In the fall of 1954, 1.4% of the student population at Eastern High School was African American. African American students were transferred to Eastern from Cardozo (Central) and Spingarn high schools, and within a decade Eastern was 99% African American.
The school underwent renovations in both the 1980s and 2010s. The most recent "modernization" also preserved remaining, historic interior elements — including original marble, wood, and terra cotta — and restored the exterior to its original grandeur. The two rear courtyards were also enclosed.
Eastern was famous for its choir, which travelled internationally, and The Blue and White Marching Machine, a marching band that has played at major events, including presidential inaugurations.
Eastern alumni include Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam; musicians Gayle Adams, Y'Anna Crawley, and Kevin LeVar; journalist George D. Beveridge; Four-Star General George S. Blanchard; NBA players Jerry Chambers and Jamorko Pickett; Senator Bennett Champ Clark; NFL linebackers Al Chesley, Frank Chesley, and Mike Wilcher; MLB pitcher Vince Colbert; White House Press Secretary Stephen Early; US Army Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, one of the "Four Chaplains," who gave his life when the SS Dorchester was torpedoed in February 1943; nuclear physicist Alvin C. Graves; Admiral Cecil D. Haney; Congressman George Huddleston, Jr.; NFL wide receiver Mike Martin; General Anthony McAuliffe; civil rights activist Franklin McCain; boxer and olympian Charles Mooney (who also taught at Eastern); Judge Edna G. Parker; reporter Eugene Scott; scholar Ibrahim K. Sundiata; DC Councilmember Brandon Todd; and General Earle Wheeler. Actor and comedian Dave Chappelle also attended Eastern High School. DC Councilmember Linda W. Cropp and musician Patrick Lundy taught at Eastern.
The school was first identified as historically and architecturally significant in Public School Buildings of Washington, DC, 1862-1960, a multiple property document.
DC Inventory: August 3, 2023
National Register: October 30, 2023
]]>The Center Building was constructed between 1852 and 1895 and is 948 feet in length. Described as “Collegiate Gothic,” the architecture is of a style that was considered appropriate for hospitals for those with mental illness during the nineteenth century. The Center Building is also an important example of the Kirkbride Plan, developed by Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride. It was a popular layout for hospitals in the second half of the nineteenth century, and changed the way professionals considered the built environment in their patients' treatment. Kirkbride placed a lot of value on professionals being careful in how they designed their treatment facilities and encouraged them to be critical in how they organized these buildings. This plan called for the superintendent’s office and living space to be in a part of the hospital that would be the central point for which the rest of the building would extend from. The wings built off of this central building needed to also be symmetrical and linear. Because these wings would be linear in shape, it gave each patient room a clear view outside, and avoided the potential of patients being able to overlook one another’s room.
Each section in both wings step back from one another. Kirkbride saw that this benefited ventilation and brought in more light. He believed that this layout would also help keep patients in different conditions separate from one another and make it easier to have patients with similar experiences living in the same space. Kirkbride also insisted that hospitals providing this care should not look like prisons, and the Center Building’s interior is a testament to that ideal.
The first superintendent of Saint Elizabeths, Dr. Charles Henry Nichols, designed the Center Building, and often asked for the advice of Thomas Walter, architect of the Capitol. Nichols planned much of the building around making sure that patients were able to see views of the river, city, and surrounding countryside. He believed that seeing such an environment would benefit their treatment.
Following an extensive rehabilitation and restoration project, the Center Building reopened in 2019 as office space for the Department of Homeland Security, which is now headquarted at Saint Elizabeths' West Campus.
]]>As public education programs expanded in the early 20th century, vocational education became more popular in order to train young people with desirable skills for specific industries. The Margaret Murray Washington School, originally known as the O Street Vocational School, constructed in 1912, taught African American students, particularly women, in various trades and skills throughout its almost century-long history. Designed by Snowden Ashford in the Collegiate Gothic style, the building expanded vocational training programs to include domestic, industrial, and medical programs, in addition to many others. When it first opened its doors, the school had relatively low enrollment, but, with additional advertising, soon became a well-attended school for its African American students. While it originally taught both men and women, the United States’ entrance into World War I forced the school to shift to primarily teaching its female students, with male enrollment rates dropping due to military enlistment and drafting. In its time primarily teaching women, the vocational programs continued to expand and develop, making the school a well-regarded institution. In 1926, the school gained a new name as it continued to grow. Principal Lenora C. Randolph suggested the new name in honor of the recently-passed Margaret Murray Washington, wife of African American activist and scholar Booker T. Washington. With the vocational school model following Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of manual education and training for African Americans, as well as Maragret’s own legacy as an advocate for education and social reform, the new name fit well with the school’s mission. Two years later, the building was expanded into an L-shape by architect Albert L. Harris, who continued the Gothic Revival architecture. Ten years later in 1938, the building underwent yet another addition, bringing it to its final U-shaped form. This addition was designed by noted African American architect Albert I. Cassell, who maintained the original style of the building, allowing the building to look seamless in its expansions. Similarly to the First World War, the arrival of World War II made the school’s training important in educating its students for the homefront. Additionally, the school established its practical nursing program in 1945, which immediately gained attention due to the need for wartime nurses. The program was soon after accredited and well-praised by other medical professionals due to the students’ professional demeanor and abilities in the industry. After the war ended, veterans’ return to the United States meant that the school would once again serve both men and women in its wide-ranging curricula. In one last expansion, the school added a new gymnasium to its campus in 1971, but did not follow the existing architectural style. Throughout the rest of the 20th century, the school continued operating and reformulating its programs, but declined in public support due to changing opinions on vocational schools, as a whole. Over time, the school’s funding and programs were cut and changed, with its doors finally closing in 2008 in a city-wide school consolidation move. Many local residents were saddened by the school’s closure, but its impact on the African American community and its ability to effectively train its students proved that in its time operating it was a well-respected and influential institution.
DC Inventory: November 18, 2010
National Register: November 22, 2011
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