Located on a quiet residential street, this 1914 Colonial Revival townhouse is typical of the finely detailed urban residential building constructed in the Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C. in the early twentieth century. Frances Perkins long and distinguished career as a social worker and New York State Industrial Commissioner took an important turn for American women, and for the country as a whole, when in 1932 she was appointed U.S. Secretary of Labor, the first woman ever to be included in a president's cabinet.
Perkins remained Secretary of Labor until 1945, one of only two original cabinet members to remain to the end of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency. During her long tenure, particularly in the pre-war New Deal years, she was the prime mover on several pieces of legislation that are among the Democratic Party’s most lasting achievements: the Social Security Act (Perkins chaired the drafting committee), and the Fair Labor Standards Act, which created a minimum wage and restricted child labor nationwide.
National Historic Landmark: July 17, 1991
National Register: July 17, 1991
]]>Built circa 1875, this row house was the home of Charlotte Forten Grimké from 1881 to 1886. Grimké (1838-1914) was a pioneer Black female educator, an early supporter of women’s rights, a writer, and an active abolitionist. She was among the first group of northern educators to enter the war-torn, isolated areas of South Carolina to provide instruction to enslaved people living within Union-occupied territory. Most significantly, Grimké kept a journal of her experiences at Port Royal, South Carolina, which provides a vivid picture of her students’ progress and growth. In her time, her descriptions of their progress helped to negate the presumption that Black people could not benefit from education, which was widespread among white people in her day. Grimké’s work set an important example for the increased involvement of northern Black men and women in the task of lending their skills in support of the newly freed Black population of the South. DC Inventory: March 3, 1979
National Register and National Historic Landmark: May 11, 1976
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