On the Heights

On the Heights. Cultural Convergence. , In the days of legally segregated public education (1862-1954), this school building was Central High, the gem of the School Board’s white division. But by 1949, it had few students, as the post-World War II suburban housing boom had drawn whites away. Consequently, African American families outnumbered whites around Central., Nearby “Colored” high schools , especially Cardozo at Ninth Street and Rhode Island Avenue , struggled with overcrowded, outdated facilities. When activists pressed the city to move Cardozo’s black students to Central, the white community resisted. But the School Board could not justify the waste of space. So in September 1950, with white students relocated to other schools, Central became Cardozo, the business high school for black students. Four years later with Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court nominally integrated all DC schools., Long before there was a school here, though, this fabulous view was enjoyed by a sculptor and engraver named William J. Stone. In 1835 Stone moved into the Federal style “Mount Pleasant” house, once the center-piece of the prominent Peter family’s thousand-acre estate here. During the Civil War, the house served as a hospital. In 1881 Senator John Sherman bought 121 acres, then laid out a subdivision between 11th and 14th Streets, naming it Columbia Heights. His contemporary, Senator John A. Logan of Illinois, a Civil War general, co-founder of Memorial Day, and future vice presidential candidate (1884), bought the old mansion and renamed it Calumet Place. Later, Logan’s widow Mary rented it to Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan.