DC Heritage Trails: City Within a City: Greater U Street Heritage Trail:
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TRUST_140131_01.JPG: You Had to Wear a Tie
City within a City
-- Greater U Street Heritage Trail --
You are standing on Washington's historic Black Broadway–the heart of African American life in Washington, D.C. from about 1900 to the 1950s. Duke Ellington, its most famous native son, grew up, was inspired, trained, and played his first music here. He is but one example of the leaders in law, medicine, the military, science and the arts who were shaped by a community that valued education and supported achievement against great odds in a segregated society. Nearby Howard University was its guiding star.
The Lincoln Theater at mid-block across U Street, now restored to its 1922 grandeur, was one of three first run movie theaters clustered on U Street. The Lincoln Colonnade behind the theater, since demolished, was a popular setting for balls, parties and performances. All the great entertainers played clubs on or near this boulevard–Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Sarah Vaughn, Louis Armstrong, Billy Eckstine, and Jelly Roll Morton, to name a few.
Black-owned businesses, the offices of Black lawyers, doctors and dentists; and the headquarters of Black social institutions clustered along U Street. Many of them occupied buildings that were financed, designed and built by and for African Americans–unusual at the time.
All night and on weekends, U Street was a parade ground–a place to meet friends and share what many describe as a close, small-time atmosphere. And at its core was an elegance epitomized by Duke Ellington himself. The old-timers say that U Street was so grand that to come here you had to wear a tie.
Ushers welcome patrons, above, to the Lincoln Theater about 1940. Duke Ellington, left, frequently returned home from New York to play at the Howard Theater at 7th and T.
The Republic Theater in the 1300 block of U Street, demolished in the 1980s, was one of three first run movie houses on the street Noted photographer Robert H. McNeill captured this lively night-time scene about 1940.
Louis Armstrong playing the Lincoln Colonnade, a popular dance hall that once operated behind the Lincoln Theater.
Capital Classic parade headed for U Street in the 1950s.
TRUST_140131_08.JPG: City Within a City
Greater U Street Heritage Trail
For the first half of the twentieth century, this U Street neighborhood inspired and sustained the rich social, civic and cultural life of Washington's African American community. Here in the shadow of the renowned Howard University, neighbors responded to the injustices of a segregated city by creating their own self-reliant culture as well as generating leaders for the city and the nation in science, medicine, law, the military, education, literature and the arts. Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, though only one of many celebrated residents, personifies their achievements. Follow this trail to the places that tell the story of this exceptional community in the heart of the nation's capital.
A tour booklet, City Within a City: U Street Heritage Trail, is available in English and Spanish at local businesses and institutions along the route. To learn more about other DC neighborhoods, please visit www.CuturalTourismDC.org.
TRUST_140131_12.JPG: City Within a City
Greater U Street Heritage Trail
12 A Prestige Address
The grand Beaux-Arts buildings near this corner stand witness to the status of this area in early 20th century Washington, and as tribute to the indomitable spirit of Mary Foote Henderson. The wealthy wife of Senator John B. Henderson, she lived one block from here at 16th and Florida Avenue in a Romanesque castle and spent decades promoting 16th Street as the prestige address in the nation's capital. In the 1980s, she was instrumental in having 16th Street extended into the still undeveloped land just north of here.
Developers followed, and in 1900 the Balfour Apartment building went across the street to the west at a cost of $100,000, making it one of the most expensive structures of its kind in the city. Designed by Washington architect George S. Cooper, it offered 36 large, luxurious apartments.
Prestigious apartments continued to spring up in this neighborhood providing popular accommodations for congressmen, military personnel, and other federal government officials. The Northumberland, just north of here on the east side of the street at 2039 New Hampshire Avenue, is a remarkably preserved example. Architect Albert H. Beers created its Renaissance-inspired design in 1909 for prolific Washington builder Harry Wardman. The building featured such innovations as a public dining room, trash chutes from each kitchen, wall safes, and a telephone switchboard which has operated 24 hours a day since the building opened in 1910.
The impressive Beaux-Arts building on the corner behind you was built in 1914 for the Congressional Club, founded in 1908 on another site as a non-partisan gathering place for the spouses of members of Congress. Mary Henderson provided the land, substantial construction funds, and her favorite architect, George Oakley Totten, Jr. He designed nine other mansions for Mary Henderson along 16th Street, which she rented to foreign embassies. She even encouraged the president of the Untied States to move from the White House into her 16th Street neighborhood, but in that she did not succeed.
TRUST_140131_21.JPG: City Within a City
Greater U Street Heritage Trail
For the first half of the twentieth century, this U Street neighborhood inspired and sustained the rich social, civic and cultural life of Washington's African American community. Here in the shadow of the renowned Howard University, neighbors responded to the injustices of a segregated city by creating their own self-reliant culture as well as generating leaders for the city and the nation in science, medicine, law, the military, education, literature and the arts. Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, though only one of many celebrated residents, personifies their achievements. Follow this trail to the places that tell the story of this exceptional community in the heart of the nation's capital.
A tour booklet, City Within a City: U Street Heritage Trail, is available in English and Spanish at local businesses and institutions along the route. To learn more about other DC neighborhoods, please visit www.CuturalTourismDC.org.
TRUST_140131_27.JPG: City Within a City
Greater U Street Heritage Trail
For the first half of the twentieth century, this U Street neighborhood inspired and sustained the rich social, civic and cultural life of Washington's African American community. Here in the shadow of the renowned Howard University, neighbors responded to the injustices of a segregated city by creating their own self-reliant culture as well as generating leaders for the city and the nation in science, medicine, law, the military, education, literature and the arts. Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, though only one of many celebrated residents, personifies their achievements. Follow this trail to the places that tell the story of this exceptional community in the heart of the nation's capital.
A tour booklet, City Within a City: U Street Heritage Trail, is available in English and Spanish at local businesses and institutions along the route. To learn more about other DC neighborhoods, please visit www.CuturalTourismDC.org.
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2014 photos: Trips this year:
three Civil War Trust conferences (Winchester, VA, Nashville, TN, and Atlanta, GA),
Michigan to visit mom in the hospice before she died and then a return trip after she died, and
my 9th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Las Vegas, Reno, Carson City, Sacramento, Oakland, and Los Angeles).
Ego strokes: Paul Dickson used one of my photos as the author photo in his book "Aphorisms: Words Wrought by Writers".
Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Number of photos taken this year: just over 470,000.
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