The Trinidad neighborhood, named for W.W. Corcoran's original estate, got its start in the 1890s after the Washington Brick Machine Company used up the clay here making bricks. With H Street filling in with houses and businesses, the company . . . — — Map (db m186807) HM
Cathy Hughes and WOL-AM have made an indelible mark on this Washington D.C. community. In 1982, Hughes purchased a building at the corner of 4th and H Streets and found it littered with almost 200 hypodermic needles and crack pipes. The home of her . . . — — Map (db m111969) HM
Dr. Granville N. Moore practiced medicine on this site for over 50 years, providing medical care for the poor and underprivilege.
In the spirit of Dr. Granville's commitment to the community, we reopen these doors as a . . . — — Map (db m244968) HM
Henrietta Vinton Davis (1860-1941), a certified teacher by age 15, was the first black woman employed by the DC Recorder of Deeds. After serving there with Frederick Douglass, she went on to become an acclaimed actor and elocutionist (a . . . — — Map (db m187432) HM
The handsome church on this corner is the second to occupy this spot. The first was a small brick chapel built by John A. Douglas in 1878 for the new Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church. Soon after, it was renamed Douglas Memorial Methodist . . . — — Map (db m71691) HM
On Friday, April 5, 1968 the 600 block of H Street went up in flames. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been assassinated a day earlier, and grief-stricken, angry men and women had taken to the streets across the city. Some took . . . — — Map (db m71692) HM
This area, including that of the adjacent shopping center, was once the site of Columbian Harmony Cemetery. The cemetery, established in 1828 "for free persons of color," was originally located near 6th and S Streets, NW, Washington, D.C. . . . — — Map (db m146576) HM
Many distinguished Black citizens including Civil War veterans were buried in this cemetery.
These bodies now rest in the new National Harmony Memorial Park Cemetery in Maryland. — — Map (db m16069) HM
Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998), internationally acclaimed artist and teacher, lived here from the 1950s into the 1970s. Born and educated in Boston, Jones joined the Howard University Art Department in 1930 and stayed for nearly 50 years. She began . . . — — Map (db m111784) HM
Economist Robert Clifton Weaver (1907-1997) was born in Washington and grew up here in Brookland. After graduating from Dunbar High School, he earned three degrees in economics from Harvard and moved into a long career in government service. Weaver . . . — — Map (db m111796) HM
Sterling Brown (1901-1989) was a central figure of the New Negro Renaissance of the 1920s and '30s and the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and '70s. Brown's work includes Southern Road (1932), The Negro in American Fiction (1937), . . . — — Map (db m111799) HM
“[The British] put a slow match to the [Sewall] house and those rockets burst until they made the rafters fly East and West.” — Enslaved African American diarist and eyewitness, Michael Shiner.
As the British . . . — — Map (db m87856) HM
Orator - Publisher - Statesman
Precursor of the Civil Rights Movement
An ex-slave who rose to world renown as an abolitionist and who served in high government posts under presidents Grant through Cleveland, Frederick Douglass resided in this . . . — — Map (db m69264) HM
In grateful memory of Abraham Lincoln. This monument was erected by the Western Sanitary Commission of Saint Louis, Mo., with funds contributed solely by emancipated Citizens of the United States declared free by his Proclamation, January 1st . . . — — Map (db m41617) HM
Front:
One of the icons of world architecture, the U.S. Capitol has been the meeting place of Congress since 1800. President George Washington laid the cornerstone on September 18, 1793. While under construction, the the building was . . . — — Map (db m111467) HM
Until 1939, the only place for African Americans to play golf in Washington was West Potomac Park. That year, in response to petitions by African American golfers asking Interior Secretary Harold Ickes to desegregate the city's public golf courses, . . . — — Map (db m112998) HM
Langston Terrace Dwellings, opened in 1938, was the first federally funded public housing project in Washington and among the first in the nation. It honors John Mercer Langston (1829-1897), abolitionist, founder of Howard University Law School, and . . . — — Map (db m112792) HM
Westernmost panel:
100 Years of Afro-American History
By Jerome Johnson
Sponsors
D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities
Sign of the Times Cultural Workshop & Gallery
CFC # 16414 & United Black Fund #8558
. . . — — Map (db m112798) HM
The Two-Story Art Deco Style Building on your left was once the Strand Theater. Abe Lichtman, a Jewish businessman whose movie theaters catered to black patrons, opened the Strand in 1918. Lichtman also operated the Lincoln and Howard . . . — — Map (db m130777) HM
To your right it is the former Merritt Educational Center which operated from 1943 to 2008. However, if you were standing here in the 1920s or '30s, in its place you would have seen exuberant crowds of fashionably dressed African Americans . . . — — Map (db m130780) HM
This quaint frame building has served several church congregations since its construction in 1908. The First Zion Baptist Church stayed for more than 60 years. Since 1993 members of Joshua's Temple First Born Church have worshiped within its . . . — — Map (db m130784) HM
Largely ignored by city officials and isolated from downtown DC, Deanwood remained semi-rural until around World War II (1941-1945).
Lifelong residents who grew up in the 1930s and '40s remember outsiders telling them that they lived in . . . — — Map (db m130781) HM
Jacob Dodd (d. 1930) left the Government Printing Office in 1920 to join his brother Randolph (d. 1944) in the house-building business. Though they collaborated on at least 50 projects in Deanwood, they also worked individually, completing more . . . — — Map (db m187368) HM
Lewis Giles, Sr. (1894-1974) was an influential Washington architect who designed this Colonial Revival/craftsman style house in 1929. He lived here the rest of his life, and worked in his home office.
Giles graduated from Armstrong . . . — — Map (db m187369) HM
A monument for God
North West Beulah Baptist Church
Organized 1945
Built August 24, 1969
Rev. Moses Henderson
Founder and Pastor
Robert Nash, Architect
Elmer W. Sarbacher, Builder — — Map (db m244004) HM
In 1907, when Deanwood's African American children needed a school close to home, city officials decided to place a public elementary here. Snowden Ashford (1866-1927), the District's inspector of buildings, designed the original four-room . . . — — Map (db m158343) HM
Sheltered from the overt bigotry many African Americans experienced when venturing downtown, Deanwood shoppers of the 1950s patronized Sheriff Road's mostly African American businesses, including Mouse Gordon's tailor shop, Tip Top Grocery, . . . — — Map (db m130783) HM
Up the hill to your left are several signature handcrafted houses, Beginning in the late 1800s, Deanwood attracted skilled black migrants, who freely passed on their know-how.
In the 1920s Jacob and Randolph Dodd built about 50 structures . . . — — Map (db m153319) HM
Water and land embrace one another here in Eastland Gardens, adjacent Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. The Neighborhood dates to 1928 when a group of developers call Eastland Gardens Inc. bought some 150 acres of the former Benning Racetrack property and . . . — — Map (db m119740) HM
Alethia Tanner, or "Lethe" as she was known, was born into slavery in 1781 on a plantation in Prince George's County, Maryland, where she lived and worked with her sisters, Laurana and Sophia, before coming to Washington in the early 1800s. . . . — — Map (db m234910) HM
Religious Organizations
Free and enslaved African Americans played vital roles in early Washington as laborers, servants, merchants, drivers and federal workers. They created Black charitable groups, schools, and churches, which served . . . — — Map (db m234907) HM
The Plantation
Alethia Tanner and her sisters worked alongside other enslaved workers on the Chelsea Plantation in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. It was owned by Tobias Belt and later by his daughter, Rachel Belt Pratt.
When Tobias Belt . . . — — Map (db m234912) HM
Successful entrepreneurs get in the ring to fight for their businesses and communities every day. "Entrepreneurship is a Boxing Match," inspired by a poem by Shelly Olimβdθ Bell, founder & CEO of Black Girl Ventures Foundation (BGV), highlights . . . — — Map (db m202317) HM
Teachers:
Mary E. Britt, Rubye S. Frye, Robert Robinson, Bessie Z. Thornton
Students:
Mary Arnold, Irene Brown, Darrel Chatman, Robbie Cheatham, Dorothy Howard, Robert Jones, Richard King, Rial Loftis, William Matthews, Donald . . . — — Map (db m216739) HM
Deanwood once was farmland belonging to slave-holding families. Some of their namesSherriff, Lowrie, and Benning--still mark local roads.
In 1833 Levi Sherriff purchased several hundred acres along Watts Branch from William Benning's . . . — — Map (db m130778) HM
Howard Dilworth Woodson (1877-1962), a Pittsburgh native, arrived in Washington in 1907 to work as a structural engineer in the Office of the Supervising Architect, U.S. Department of the Treasury. One of the first African American professionals . . . — — Map (db m187367) HM
Welcome to the Robert F. Lederer Environmental Education Center and Youth Garden. This center honors Robert F. Lederer, the Executive Vice President of the American Association of Nurserymen during the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson's . . . — — Map (db m130779) HM
The National Training School for Women and Girls was founded here in 1909 by Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879 - 1961). With its focus on the three B's Bible, bath and broom the school taught skills such as business, sewing, and printing. It . . . — — Map (db m103272) HM
Atop this hill are the sprawling grounds on which Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879-1961) founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in 1909. Burroughs was an outspoken advocate for women's rights, civil rights, and religious . . . — — Map (db m184992) HM
Helen Fowler took over administration of the Shaw Gardens from her father in 1912. Under her guidance the gardens grew into one of the most extensive water plant businesses in the nation. By 1938, Shaw Gardens encompassed 42 ponds spread over nine . . . — — Map (db m141717) HM
National parks are special places owned by all Americans. Caring for these treasures is everyone's job. Throughout the country, citizen organized friends grouped to get people interested in and involved with preserving natural and cultural . . . — — Map (db m145319) HM
WOOK-TV, on the air from 1963 to 1972, was the first "all-Negro" television station in the nation. White founder Richard Eaton also started its predecessor, WOOK-Radio, in 1947 in the nation's first "Negro-oriented" . . . — — Map (db m113223) HM
[Plaque on sculpture along 20th Street]
A Celebration of Chuck Brown
(1936-2012)
The fundamental force behind Go-Go music -- Using music, story-telling, and rhythm to help create a culture of inclusion and participation in . . . — — Map (db m130826) HM
Obstetrician Ionia Rollin Whipper (1872-1953) was a leader in health care services for the city's young women. Born in South Carolina to an illustrious family, Dr. Whipper was educated in the DC public schools before graduating from Howard . . . — — Map (db m187434) HM
Across the street is Watts Branch, an actively used creek that has tied together many communities. Unfortunately humans have not always been respectful of this resource. The stream has experienced cycles of neglect and rejuvenation.
In . . . — — Map (db m130776) HM
If you had stood here 100 years ago, you might have heard the cheering crowds and thundering hoofbeats of Benning Racetrack just across the tracks to your right.
Beginning in 1890, Benning was the best-equipped race course in Washington. . . . — — Map (db m130786) HM
Mayfair Mansions, completed in 1946 on the site of the old Benning Race Track, was one of the city's earliest garden apartment developments. The 500-unit, first-class complex was designed by Howard University Professor of Architecture Albert I. . . . — — Map (db m136186) HM
Union Station, across First Street, was the worlds largest railroad terminal when it opened in 1907. Its construction took five years and displaced hundreds of small houses and businesses. Architect Daniel Burnhams Beaux-Arts masterpiece, . . . — — Map (db m71678) HM
Commemorated in 2020 to celebrate the life of
Danny Hogg a.k.a. Cool "Disco" Dan
the most iconic graffiti writer to emerge
from Washington, DC in the 1980s.
Cory Lee Stowers - Curator
Gabriela Mossi - Community . . . — — Map (db m231119) HM
Organized August 19, 1994
Rev. Carlton W. Veazey
Pastor and founder
Dedicated September 26, 1999
Carrie L. Leary
Chair, Diaconate Board
F. Alexis Roberson
Chair, Board of Trustees
English, Irish and German settlers, as well as enslaved and free African Americans, were the first non-natives to claim Brightwood. Farmers dominated until the Civil War. Then in the 1890s electric streetcars allowed government workers to live . . . — — Map (db m121018) HM
The Jones Haywood School of Ballet was founded here by Doris W. Jones and Claire H. Haywood in 1941. Their Capitol Ballet Company, established in 1961, remained the nation's only predominantly African American, professional ballet troupe through the . . . — — Map (db m65511) HM
The City Park across the street was once Emery Place, the summer estate of Matthew Gault Emery.
A prominent builder, Emery was Washington City's last elected mayor during the period of home rule. He was succeeded in 1874 by a . . . — — Map (db m72816) HM
- founder -
Rev. Charles C. Hayes 1963
Destroyed by fire 1979
Rebuilt 1981
building fund chairman
Dea. Roy L. Dixon
co-chairman
Dea. Curtis M. Dudley
pastor
Rev. Charles C. Hayes
architect - Cass & . . . — — Map (db m243814) HM
Three dramatic religious structures dominate this corner. They are among some 40 religious institutions lining 16th Street between the White House and the Maryland state line.
Many serve as unofficial embassies representing the . . . — — Map (db m152206) HM
In 2013, Howard University archaeologists, working with concerned citizens, completed a seven-year survey of Walter C. Pierce Community Park. Their goal: to identify and protect two 19th Century cemeteries--the Colored Union Benevolent . . . — — Map (db m112588) HM
In 2013, Howard University archaeologists, working with concerned citizens, completed a seven-year survey of Walter C. Pierce Community Park. Their goal, to identify and protect two historic cemeteriesthe Colored Union Benevolent . . . — — Map (db m236781) HM
Across the street you can see the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center. It opened in 1977 on the former sites of Morgan Community School and Happy Hollow Playground.
Both the Adams and Morgan elementary schools became "community schools" . . . — — Map (db m130703) HM
Calvin T.S. Brent (1854-1899), believed to be Washington's first African American architect, lived here briefly in the early 1890s. (His other residences have been demolished.) Brent began practicing in 1875 and after a two-year apprenticeship and . . . — — Map (db m129528) HM
During the Civil War (1861-1865), the Union Army Carver Hospital and barracks occupied Meridian Hill. The facilities attracted African American freedom seekers looking for protection and employment. By wars end, a Black community had put down . . . — — Map (db m130705) HM
Long before Europeans arrived, Meridian Hill was a sacred place for Native Americans. As recently as 1992, a delegation of Native Americans walked across the continent to this park to mourn the 500th anniversary of Columbuss arrival. They were . . . — — Map (db m130706) HM
The African American and Quaker cemeteries here were almost lost to time. Both closed in 1890 due to development. Parts of the land were sold to the National Zoo and National Park Service. Developers bought the rest and tried . . . — — Map (db m236780) HM
Today's Walter Pierce Park was once the site of two cemeteriesthe Friends (Quaker) Burying Ground, in use from 1807 to 1890, and Mt. Pleasant Plains Cemetery, where more than 8,400 African Americans were buried between 1870 and 1890. . . . — — Map (db m236776) HM
Mt. Pleasant Plains Cemetery was the final resting place for some of the passengers and conductors of the largest Underground Railroad operation in history: the escape on the sailing ship Pearl. In April 1848, after months of planning, . . . — — Map (db m236777) HM
"I knew him when he was drafted for the war, and I knew him when he came back ... He had a soldier's clothes on when he came back, with a gun, canteen, knap sack and blanket."-- Lloyd Mudd, testifying to U.S. Pension officials about . . . — — Map (db m112866) HM
The Civil War changed Washington, as Union troops poured into the city to secure it, and thousands of refugees from slavery arrived here seeking freedom. More than 40 African American soldiers and sailors were later buried at Mt. . . . — — Map (db m236779) HM
Named in honor of
Edward Kennedy Ellington
1899-1974
Native Son
Composer - Performer - Playwright
International Statesman of Goodwill — — Map (db m67913) HM
In 1947, the building on your left opened as the National Arena, a public roller rink and bowling alley. It also hosted professional wrestling, roller derbies, and rock concerts. In 1986 it became the Citadel Motion Picture Center, where . . . — — Map (db m130710) HM
[Marker depicts individuals in historical fashion styles in DC from the 19th and 20th centuries.]
Elizabeth Keckley
Dressmaker
1818, Dinwiddie, VA ~ 1907, Washington, DC
"Art still has . . . — — Map (db m163274) HM
The Rock Creek Valley, once home to Native Americans, had attracted European settlers by 1703. Before he became president in 1825, John Quincy Adams purchased Adams Mills on Rock Creek from his cousin. The mills, just down the hill, processed . . . — — Map (db m130713) HM
The Barnett Aden Gallery, which operated on the first floor of this house between 1943 and 1968, was the first privately owned black art gallery in the United States. It was founded by James Vernon Herring (1897-1969), chair of Howard University's . . . — — Map (db m110518) HM
You are standing in the heart of Bloomingdale. Noted DC developer Harry Wardman, responsible for 180 Bloomingdale houses, was one of many builders who built here between 1890 and 1910.
These Victorian rowhouses were designed for . . . — — Map (db m130827) HM
In the 1940s, homeowners in the 100 block of Bryant Street breached a contract when they sold their houses to African Americans. Covenants, or agreements, in their real estate deeds prohibited "the sale of the house to anyone of the Negro . . . — — Map (db m130828) HM
This busy stretch of Rhode Island Avenue was a racial dividing line even as DC became majority African American in 1957. "African Americans were not welcome on [the north] side of the street," commented Reverend Bobby Livingston years later, . . . — — Map (db m130840) HM
St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church celebrated its first Mass in 1901 in a nearby mansion. Father Eugene Hannan, a graduate of Gonzaga High School just south of here, founded St. Martin's to serve the growing Catholic population that dated to . . . — — Map (db m130841) HM
Bloomingdale of the 1940s and '50s was a village of high expectations. Within a block of this sign lived four young women who grew up to be judges.
Anna Diggs Taylor rose to chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Michigan. The . . . — — Map (db m130843) HM
Edward Brooke, who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate from 1967 to 1979, was the first African American elected to the Senate in the 20th century. Brooke was born at 1938 Third Street and later lived with his family at 1730 First . . . — — Map (db m130842) HM
Organized 1832.
2nd Church Built 1833.
Admitted to Philadelphia-Baltimore Conference, 1837.
3rd Church Built 1888.
Relocated present site, 1956.
Bishop Raymond Luthe Jones, Presiding Bishop, 4th Episcopal District.
Dr. William B. . . . — — Map (db m11042) HM
The Nathaniel Gage School for white children opened here in 1904, when Washington's public school system was segregated. By the 1930s, even though LeDroit Park was an African American neighborhood, Gage remained white only. "I had to walk by . . . — — Map (db m130839) HM
Even before emancipation freed Washington's enslaved people in April 1862, a free African American community had developed here amid the European American farmers. The District of Columbia, unlike its neighbors, permitted the formerly enslaved . . . — — Map (db m143796) HM
Elizabeth Proctor Thomas (1821-1917), a free Black woman whose image appears on each Brightwood Heritage Trail sign, once owned 11 acres in this area. Known, respectfully in her old age as "Aunt Betty," Thomas and her husband James farmed and . . . — — Map (db m72830) HM
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