John Fox Slater School: This building illustrates DC school design in the 1880s and 1890s.

Completed in 1891 for African American students by the city's Office of the Building Inspector, the John Fox Slater School was designed in a Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival style. The former school building is a turreted red brick, two-story structure composed of eight classrooms, and is emblematic of late-19th century public school buildings in the District.

Designed according to the same plans as Jackson Elementary School (1889) in Georgetown (built for white students), Slater School is characterized by its Victorian era massing — replete with projecting pavilions, gables, towers, and molded brick string courses. Slater's most prominent feature, its corner tower, is capped by an eight-sided conical roof, sheathed in tin.

Slater School was overcrowded soon after it opened. In the late 1910s, it was merged with the neighboring John Mercer Langston School to become Slater-Langston, until 1951.

DC Inventory: October 27, 2011

National Register: April 9, 2013