The Randle Highlands School, built between 1911 and 1912, is strongly associated with the history of the District’s public schools, and its construction in the early 20th century was due to the need for new schools to accommodate the city’s growing population.
Towards the end of the 19th century, there was a movement to improve and modernize schools in Washington, DC, which had undergone significant growth following the Civil War. As part of this movement, the education system was reorganized, and there was also a push for larger schools with better facilities. At the start of the 20th century, the Board of Education in DC constructed and renovated over 30 schools, including the Randle Highlands School and the Alexander Crummell School (1911) — both designed by Snowden Ashford. The school was built only after lobbying by local residents and the Randle Highlands Citizens Association. When the school opened, it only served white students. Efforts to desegregate the schools of Washington started in the 1940s and the Randle Highlands School was finally integrated in 1954, following the US Supreme Court decision Bolling v. Sharpe.
The Randle Highlands School was designed in a Tudor and Elizabethan Revival style by Snowden Ashford, a well-known DC architect and the city’s first Municipal Architect (1910-1920). Ashford was revered for his ability to design complex buildings while sticking to a tight budget. He preferred the Elizabethan Revival style when it came to designing schools, as he felt that it reflected the country’s oldest educational institutions. Therefore, several Ashford-designed schools also feature this style, including Eastern High School, Park View School, and James Ormond Wilson Normal School. Soon after the completion of these schools in the 1910s and 1920s, the Colonial Revival style became the style of choice for the District’s public schools.
The exterior of the three-story Randle Highlands School is primarily made up of red brick, with limestone embellishments around the front entrance and windows. The school features a recessed front entrance with two sets of double-leaf doors, a geometric motif, and transoms above the doors. Above the front entrance there is a three-sided oriel bay window. The roof of the building is flat with a parapet and crenellations along the top of the projecting bay window. There is also a geometric design along the top panel of the roof. The interior of the school was almost entirely modernized in 2020, with the only remaining original features being the wood frame blackboards, transoms, and single-leaf wood doors. The building is now used as a public early learning center for young children.
DC Inventory: January 23, 2025
National Register: May 12, 2025
]]>The Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostles was founded in 1858 with the purpose of converting non-Catholic Americans to Catholicism. To this end, the Paulists established their own educational curriculum to ordain priests at Saint Paul the Apostle Church in New York. Upon the establishment of the Catholic University of America, the Paulists transferred their seminary to DC, building Saint Thomas Aquinas College on the university grounds. In 1911, with a desire for independence from the university and a need for more space, the Paulists purchased twenty-five acres near the school, known as the Stewart property for its nineteenth-century owner. The new Saint Thomas Aquinas College opened in 1914. It was formally dedicated in 1916, at which time it was renamed St. Paul’s College. Students lived, studied and worshipped in the building according to a rigorous discipline.
This original building was designed by the firm of Frederick V. Murphy (1879-1958) and Walter B. Olmsted (1871-1937) and was one of the architecture firm’s first major commissions. The firm would go on to establish itself as a prominent practice, gaining notoriety primarily for its work with the Catholic Church and associated institutions, including numerous buildings on the campuses of the Catholic University and Georgetown University. In addition to Murphy’s and Olmsted’s work at Catholic University, where they designed at least eight educational buildings, dormitories, the gym and the library, the firm produced many other churches, convents, and government, commercial and residential buildings in DC and beyond.
As St. Paul’s work expanded during the next decades, so too did the college building. In several phases of construction, beginning in the 1930s, the school extended its main block and added perpendicular rear wings, forming the building footprint that exists today. These wings accommodated a convent, additional residential quarters, a new chapel, and a dining area. All were designed by different architects whose designs were deferential to the original Murphy and Olmsted building.
DC Inventory: November 16, 2017
National Register: September 13, 2018
]]>The James Ormond Wilson Teachers' College, originally known as the Washington Normal School, is an Elizabethan Revival brick building with two floors, an attic and basement. Erected between 1911 and 1912, the school sits on a 95,138 square foot site. The ground had been filled on a tributary, and the foundation was designed without regard to the original land contours.
The Wilson Normal School is significant for its contribution to the public education movement in Washington, DC in the advancement of teacher training. Starting in 1839 by such leaders as Horace Mann, James Carter, Henry Barnard, and Tomas Gallaudet, the teacher education movement became a vital part of promoting the United States as the foundation of democracy. The Wilson Normal School is a purpose-built public school building, it is an outstanding example of a public school building designed by the Office of Municipal Architect Snowden Ashford. The building is an excellent example of Elizabethan Revival architecture, lauded at its time for its expanse of windows, as well as technical improvements such as steam heat.
The Washington Normal School changed its name to the James Ormond Wilson Normal School in 1913 to honor the then-superintendent of DC schools.
DC Inventory: November 20, 2014
National Register: March 31, 2015
]]>In 1911, the quickly developing Park View neighborhood was in need of an elementary school for its 600 children. In 1916, after years of advocacy by the Park View Citizens’ Association, the 16-room school designed by DC Municipal Architect Snowden Ashford was completed. With its Elizabethan Revival style, the school closely resembles Ashford’s high school designs and was a rare departure from the city’s Victorian Era or Colonial Revival style elementary schools.
Also unique to the Park View School is its 700-seat auditorium, which has a rare interior landmark designation. The hall, built well before other elementary schools in DC had auditoriums, was to be used for both school and community functions, and includes a striking wooden truss supporting its roof.
DC Inventory: May 24, 2012
National Register: May 1, 2013
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