Francis Junior High School, which opened in 1928, was the District's first purpose-built junior high for African American students. The original building, dating to 1927-29, was designed by DC Municipal Architect Albert L. Harris in a Renaissance Revival style. Many public buildings are attributed to Harris, who is known for his Renaissance Revival and Colonial Revival designs. The school is named for Dr. John R. Francis (1856-1913), who was an African American physician, DC Board of Education member, and Howard University Trustee.
In response to population growth and overcrowded classrooms, new school construction in the District accelerated during the interwar period. This construction was spurred by the Five-Year School Building Program Act of 1925. Just prior to the passage of this federal legislation, in 1920, the DC Board of Education established the junior high school concept, taking two grades from elementary school and one grade from high school.
Following the establishment of junior high schools in the District, Shaw Junior High School — which first occupied the former M Street High School building, followed by the former McKinley Manual Traing School building — opened in 1919-20. Shaw was the first junior high school for DC's African American students. Francis Junior High School, which was completed in 1927 and dedicated the following year, was the District's first purpose-built junior high for African Americans. Two years later, in 1929, Garnet-Patterson Junior High School was completed and became the second purpose-built junior high for African Americans. The DC school system would continue to be racially segregated until the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bolling v. Sharpe (1954).
Since 2024, the school has been known as the John Francis Educational Campus. This followed school consolidations in the early 21st century, including the closure of Thaddeus Stevens School.
The oldest part of the John Francis Educational Campus, was designed by Harris and dates to 1927-29. It consists of four, three-story wings surrounding a two-story auditorium — all clad in brick masonry. The primary elevation and main entrance, located on the south wing, face N Street NW. The first floor of this elevation is clad in limestone.
The south wing, at three-stories tall; east and west wings, both originally at two-stories in height; and auditorium were completed in 1927. Two years later, an additional floor was added to the east and west wings, and the north wing, at three-stories tall, was completed, enclosing the auditorium on all sides. In addition to its modern auditorium, the school featured vocational classrooms.
School buildings constructed in phases, referred to as "extensible," were common in DC at the time. This approach, which came in three styles/layouts, allowed for additions as needed, due to student population increases, and as funding permitted.
A compatible, two-story addition, connecting to the east elevation of the original building, was designed by DC Municipal Architect Merrell Coe and completed in 1953. Over 70 years later, in 2024, a three-story addition was completed just to the west of the 1927-29 building, and the 1953 addition was expanded. The expansion of the 1953 addition resulted in a new, enclosed courtyard ("outdoor classroom"). At the time, the entire complex was rehabilitated and modernized, and rebranded as the John Francis Educational Campus.
DC Inventory: December 18, 2025
National Register: February 23, 2026
]]>This building's historic landmark designation recognizes Youth Pride, Inc., which was located here from 1968 to 1981. Pride, Inc. was an important organization within the Black Power Movement and was funded through the War on Poverty, which had started under President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s. Pride adhered to the Black Power Movement's tenet of self-determination and was an important institution at a time of disinvestment, unemployment, and police brutality in the District.
As the first major American city to have a Black majority, DC was a center of the Black Power Movement. Pride, Inc. was established in 1967 by several Black Power activists, including Rufus "Catfish" Mayfield, the organization's first chairman, and future DC Mayor Marion Barry — who had first come to DC two years earlier to chair the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's DC Chapter. Pride was initially funded in August 1967 through a $300,000 grant from Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz. With these funds, "street dudes" in green denim uniforms were hired to clean alleyways, empty lots, and streets, as well as address the city's rat infestation. Due to Pride's success over this one month period, Secretary Wirtz awarded another grant — this time for $2 million — to extend Pride's programming for one-year.
In early 1968, Pride, Inc. moved to the building at 1536 U Street NW, following a renovation completed by Robert Nash and Associates, a Black-owned architectural firm. In its new headquarters and following the April 1968 uprising, Pride began to focus on Black capitalism. Thus, Pride Economic Enteriprises, Inc. (PEEI) was started with the purchase of a landscaping company, which was soon doing work for Giant Foods. PEEI then expanded into gas station ownership and low-income housing. Pride would train young men and then help them find employment through these and other initiatives — although, many more men were trained than employed. In addition to the above enterprises, Pride, Inc. partnered with American University on a work study certificate program, and established a health clinic and drug treatment program.
Over time, starting with the Nixon Adminstration in 1969, funding was reduced and Pride, Inc. was criticized by conservative congressional lawmakers. In 1981, Pride's federal funding was completely cut off and the organization permanently shutdown. This was in response to an embezzlement scandal related to P.I. Properties (a non-profit organization linked to Pride) and centered on Mary Treadwell, one of Pride's co-founders and then executive director.
Marion Barry, another Pride, Inc. co-founder, was elected mayor in 1978 — following stints on the DC Board of Education and DC Council. Pride served as a template for the Summer Youth Employment Program, which Mayor Barry established during his mayorship.
The building was designed by Frederick B. Pyle in the Renaissance Revival style and completed in 1920. At the time, many car dealerships and other automotive-related businesses were located in this section of DC, particularly along nearby 14th Street. Thus, the building was constructed for the Washington-Virginia Motor Company as an automobile showroom — hence the five round-arched windows along both U and 16th streets. These large windows have distinctive tripartite designs in both their lower and upper sections. The main entrance is in the center arch facing U Street.
The building's facade has limestone rondel bas-reliefs with shields and garlands on the first floor and decorative terra-cotta panels on the second floor. The panels within the second floor's piers are especially ornamented, with raised busts, urns, and filigree patterning.
At the time of construction, the building was only two-stories tall. These floors are clad in limestone. The third story, which sits above the building's classical cornice and dentils, was added in 1930 by the National Radio Institute, which moved a teaching facility into the building in 1927. This story is clad in terra-cotta panels. The National Radio Institute moved out in 1957. Pride, Inc. was located here from 1968 to 1981. The building is now owned by the Center for Community Change Action.
DC Inventory: June 27, 2024
National Register: August 29, 2024
]]>Constructed to house the administrative offices of the Woodward & Lothrop department store, The Woodward is an important building within the Financial Historic District and represents the city’s commercial business history. Designed by Harding & Upman and completed in 1911, the building expanded the already-successful store’s capabilities. The building’s Renaissance Revival style matched other nearby office buildings constructed during this same time with similar classical design aesthetics. Built close to banks and other financial institutions, the area thrived as DC’s own “Wall Street” grew with the city. Woodward & Lothrop began as a small retailer that grew quickly throughout the late 19th century and into the 20th century. As the department store continued to expand its footprint in the city’s retail core at 11th and F streets NW, the office building helped ensure that their retail operations could continue smoothly and efficiently. While the office building hosted a number of offices, founder Samuel Woodward also used the building for his own personal offices. Today, the building houses luxury apartments with commercial space on the first floor, currently occupied by a restaurant.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
Within Financial Historic District
]]>The Washington National Cathedral has been a landmark of religious significance for over a century, and its surrounding structures date back to the early twentieth century. The Cathedral Close (an enclosed area surrounding the designated spot for the Cathedral) was selected in the late 1800s, an open space that seemed more suitable for religious worship than the cluttered center of the city. The space also allowed for future expansion.
First opened to the public in 1901, the Cathedral Close gardens and grounds soon filled with administrative buildings, greenhouses, and schools. The first building constructed on the site, the Renaissance Revival style Hearst Hall, was designed by Robert Gibson to “harmonize with the future cathedral.” Construction of the National Cathedral began in 1907 after the completion of numerous buildings in the Close. Despite this lapse in timing, the majority of buildings were designed in the Neo-Tudor and Neo-Gothic styles, providing the historic district with a cohesive feel. The Cathedral was finally completed in 1990 -- a full 83-years after construction began.
The Close is bounded by Woodley Road on the north, Wisconsin Avenue on the west, Massachusetts Avenue at the southwest corner, Garfield Street on the south, and 34th Street on the east.
Today, the Close is home to notable schools (such as St. Alban’s and the National Cathedral School for Girls), an expansive garden (tended by the All Hallows Guild), and various administrative buildings for National Cathedral staff.
DC Inventory: March 7, 1968
National Register: May 3, 1974
]]>The Homestead Apartments were constructed in 1939, one of many multi-unit buildings erected to house working-class and middle-class Washingtonians during the interwar period. Much of this development followed the streetcar lines radiating from downtown, seeking lower land costs to accommodate a burgeoning labor force. This building was designed by French architect Louis de LaDurantaye (1885-1956). LaDurantaye designed dozens of buildings in the District but is not well known.
Fairly conventional in its H-shape plan and four-story height, the Homestead Apartments has quirky, Gothic/Romanesque decoration in the form of corbeling, round arches, basket-weave brick panels, and peaks on the roofline. There are elements that could be interpreted as Art Deco and Moderne as well, such as a stepped parapet at the central bar and projecting brick streamlining at corners and suggested pavilions, but the streamlining is presumably intended as a modern take on quoins, which picks up the classicism of the most notable exterior element of the building, the Renaissance-style hemi-octagonal entrance bay.
The most interesting functional element is the basement-level garage reached via openings off a rear alley, and the at-grade garage supports an exterior patio on its roof. The building’s landscape is notable for the intimate courtyard enclosed by the low stone walls punctuated by piers, the taller of which support a wrought-iron arch. These are echoed by stone piers and gates controlling admittance to the side yards. Stone steps stand at the entrance and at the sidewalk, and one of DC’s typical rustic granite retaining wall supports the central portion of the front yard as the land slopes away to the west.
DC Inventory: November 16, 2017
National Register: February 14, 2018
]]>The Jesse Reno School was built in 1903 for African American children. Designed by municipal architect Snowden Ashford, the school had four rooms on the first floor and four on the basement level. Its formal Renaissance-style design acknowledges the dignity of learning, and its large windows let in air and light, reflecting educational principles of its time.
The Jesse Reno School served kindergarten through eighth grade. The students were residents of Reno City, a community that came into existence during the Civil War, when enslaved people fled their owners and began to congregate around Fort Reno. Reno City was subdivided into building lots in 1869, and African Americans who were already living around the remains of the fort were joined by freed slaves from elsewhere. Reno City became a racially integrated working-class community that was about 75% black and 25% white. By the time the Jesse Reno School was built, Reno City had approximately one hundred buildings, including homes, churches, stores, and a Masonic lodge.
In the 1920s there was pressure by residents of the surrounding all-white, middle-class neighborhoods to remove Reno City and use the land for the construction of Fort Reno Park, Deal Junior High, and Wilson Senior High Schools. The city began to acquire Reno City properties and ultimately condemned those that the owners refused to sell. As black residents of Reno City were displaced, the enrollment at Reno School declined.
The school closed in 1950. The building was later used as a Civil Defense Office, and in the 1970s and '80s it became the Rose School for students with special needs. It had been vacant for many years, and the interior was badly vandalized; however, in 2014 the school was repaired and restored. The front entrance, which had been removed, was recreated. The original floor plan on its main floor has been retained. A connector to Deal Middle School was built and Reno is again serving its original educational purpose as part of Deal. Tenleytown Historical Society created an exhibit, located in the building, on the history of Reno School and the Reno community.
DC Inventory: November 19, 2009
National Register: September 7, 2010
]]>Built in 1912 and designed by local architect Arthur B. Heaton, the Babcock–Macomb House was built for Kate Woodman Babcock, the widow of former Wisconsin Representative Joseph W. Babcock. She never lived in the home, instead selling it to Tucker Sands, vice president of the National Metropolitan Bank, in 1917. Sands, in turn, sold the house to the Macomb family in 1919; the house remained in the family until 1982, when it was purchased by the Republic of Cape Verde to serve as their embassy in the United States.
DC Inventory: February 1, 1989
National Register: February 10, 1995
]]>The Real Estate Trust Building stands out among DC’s early-twentieth century office buildings. The building is a steel and concrete frame structure, sheathed in ivory-colored terra cotta with poly chrome accents. Its ground floor is clad in white marble. The Real Estate Trust Building was constructed between 1913 and 1914 in a highly ornate Beaux-Arts, Renaissance Revival style by Milburn, Heister & Company; they also designed other prominent commercial and government buildings in DC and across the United States during the early-twentieth century. The Real Estate Trust Building has weathered nearly a century without major alterations. While the ground-floor interiors have been renovated, the street-level façade appears to have been restored close to its original appearance, a rarity for downtown commercial buildings with their ever-changing first-floor tenants.
DC Inventory: October 2, 2014
National Register: January 20, 2015
]]>Though the Main Sewerage Pumping Station was constructed between 1904 and 1907, it dates back to 1889, when the US President appointed a board of sanitary engineers to devise a plan for disposing of Washington's sewage. Nearly a decade later, the sanitation system proposed by the board began to be implemented, and planning for the pumping station was underway.
Designed by the architectural firm of C.A. Didden and Son with associated architect Oscar Vogt, the Main Sewerage Pumping Station is one of the first buildings the city constructed following the adoption of the McMillan Plan, which it had been influenced by the then-popular City Beautiful Movement. The facility is an early and exceptional representation of Beaux-Arts public works buildings in the District. The striking brick building also includes Renaissance Revival style features.
DC Inventory: January 26, 2012
National Register: May 24, 2012
]]>The Walsh-McLean House is an eclectic mansion with Renaissance, Baroque, Louis XVI and Art Nouveau elements and designed by Danish-born and New York architect Henry Anderson in 1903. The house is one of many magnificent mansions constructed in the early 1900s in this area of Massachusetts Avenue near Dupont Circle. The house was built for Thomas F. Walsh, owner of the Camp Bird Mine in Ouray, Colorado, and reputed to be one of the richest men in the world. Later, the house served as the residence of his daughter, Evalyn Walsh McLean, society figure and owner of the Hope Diamond. She lived there with her husband, Edward B. McLean, who was the editor of the Washington Post and an influential Republican. The house was purchased by the Indonesian government in 1951 and continues to serve as the Indonesian Embassy.
The mansion sits on a stone-faced base of rusticated granite capped by a blind limestone balustrade. The upper walls of glazed tan Roman brick are divided by two limestone string courses. The house also features undulating buff brick, limestone, and terra cotta facades. The interiors include an elaborate "steamship" stair hall, a skylit organ room, parlors, and a conservatory.
DC Inventory: November 8, 1964 (Joint Committee on Landmarks)
National Register: January 18, 1973
Within Dupont Circle Historic District and Massachusetts Avenue Historic District
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