Typical of DC's post-Civil War red brick schoolhouses, the Daniel Webster School shows how mass-production and technology influenced the design of civic buildings in an era of great public works. It is an efficient standardized design developed by the Office of the Building Inspector, with austere Romanesque Revival facades by Architect of the Capitol Edward Clark.
Erected in 1882, the building soon became stranded in a growing business district. From 1924 to 1949, it housed the Americanization School, a specialized branch of the public schools with a curriculum based on English and citizenship classes. This institution reflected a national movement after World War I to support the assimilation of immigrants into American society; it was central to the lives of thousands of new citizens naturalized in Washington.
The building is three stories, red brick with a corbelled cornice, hipped slate roof, multi-paned windows, and heavy brick and stone portal. It was named in honor of the celebrated orator Daniel Webster.
The General Services Administration sold the historic school in 2025.
DC Inventory: February 25, 1999 (reconfirmed October 26, 2000)
]]>Built in 1868, enlarged in 1885, and partially rebuilt and enlarged between 1895 and 1896, Stevens School is one of the oldest surviving elementary school buildings in the District. Named after Pennsylvania Congressman and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens, it was originally built for African American students as part of a racially segregated public school system.
Stevens School exemplifies the struggle for equal educational opportunities for African Americans in DC after emancipation. It originally served a diverse West End community composed of both recently arrived freedmen and African Americans who had been free for generations. When office towers replaced much of the residential neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s, Stevens preserved its traditional role through an innovative extended day care program for the children of its new office-worker neighborhood. Stevens’ alumni have distinguished themselves both nationally and in their communities, including historian Rayford Whittingham Logan, Colonel Campbell C. Johnson, singer Roberta Flack, radio and TV personality Ralph “Petey” Greene, and actor Robert Hooks.
Students from all wards of the city attend Stevens today, many of them the descendants of earlier Stevens students whose parents are preserving a family tradition of educational excellence in an historic setting. Stevens is located only a few blocks from the White House, and President Jimmy Carter's daughter Amy attended Stevens while her father was in office.
The design of the building reflects its evolutionary process and has not varied in any significant manner since 1896, aside from an expansion of the playground in 1931 and 1932. Although the original architect is unknown, the plans for the building and all subsequent alterations were completed under the supervision of Edward Clark, who served as Architect of the Capitol from 1865 until 1902. The alterations of 1885 and 1895-1896 were designed and carried out by the Office of the Building Inspector under Thomas B. Entwhistle.
The Stevens School was recently renovated and reopened as the Stevens Early Learning Center. The Learning Center focuses on educating our youngest and at-risk learners, from new borns to five years old.
DC Inventory: June 20, 1972 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: July 12, 2001
]]>In December 1851, the U.S. government purchased the Riggs estate, along with a neighboring estate, to serve as the site of the first permanent retirement home for enlisted soldiers. In 1852, retired military residents moved into the former Riggs cottage and it served as their residence until 1857, when the first new structure on the property, Scott Hall — now known as the Sherman South Building — was completed. That same year, General Scott invited President Buchanan to make the asylum his summer residence.
Historical records suggest that high-ranking military officers at the asylum were housed in the Riggs cottage, while President Buchanan stayed in Quarters 2. In a letter to his favorite niece in October 1857, Buchanan wrote that he slept much better at the asylum than at the White House. In 1859, the Army Appropriation Act changed the official name of the asylum to "The Soldiers' Home," and in 1862, the Soldiers' Home welcomed its most famous resident, President Abraham Lincoln, and his family. The Lincolns moved into the Riggs cottage in June of 1862 and lived there from late June or early July until late October or early November from 1862-1864. Lincoln was already making plans for his return to the cottage in the early spring of 1865 when he was assassinated.
After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, President Andrew Johnson was offered the use of the cottage. Johnson declined and the cottage was used as a hospital for the Soldiers' Home until 1876. In 1876, when it looked as though Congress would not adjourn for the summer, President Grant was offered the cottage and made initial arrangements to stay there, but Congress did adjourn and Grant went instead to his regular summer home at Long Branch on the Jersey shore. The cottage resumed its role as a presidential retreat when President Rutherford B. Hayes stayed there during the summer months from 1877 to 1881. President James A. Garfield had accepted an invitation to stay at the cottage in 1881, but he was assassinated before he had a chance to move in. His successor, President Chester A. Arthur, lived in the cottage during November and December of 1882, while the Executive Mansion was being restored. Arthur was the last president to stay at the Soldiers' Home.
So ended an extraordinary era in the history of the Monument. For twenty five years, this cottage at the Soldiers' Home had housed presidents and the countless high-ranking governmental officials and military officers who came to do business with them at their country retreat. The Soldiers' Home served as a kind of 19th century Camp David in our nation's history.
The first dormitory at the Soldier's Home evolved into a composite edifice of three buildings:
Scott Building (Sherman Building South): Built 1852-57 (Barton S. Alexander, architect); clock tower and third floor added in 1869 (Edward Clark, architect)
Annex: Built early 1880s
Sherman North: Built 1889-91
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
Original section within Soldiers’ Home National Historic Site (United States Military Asylum) and Armed Forces Retirement Home Historic District
]]>