BGuthrie Photos: DC Heritage Trails: City Within a City: Greater U Street Heritage Trail

DC Heritage Trails: City Within a City: Greater U Street Heritage Trail:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. TRUST_190111_01.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.
2. TRUST_190111_04.JPG: This stately building on the southeast corner of 16th and U Streets graced a quiet, residential neighborhood in the 1920s. In the 1960s the building became the headquarters of Pride Inc., a job-development organization founded by Marion Barry, later mayor of the District of Columbia.
3. TRUST_190111_10.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.
4. TRUST_190111_14.JPG: Architect George Cooper added elaborate detailing, above, to the Balfour Apartments, left, built in 1900 at 16th and U.
5. TRUST_190111_18.JPG: Architect George Totten helped Mary Foote Henderson carry out her grand vision for 16h Street.
6. TRUST_190111_20.JPG: Harry Wardman, right, built the prestigious Northumberland Apartments at 2039 New Hampshire Avenue, seen below and below right, decorated for the holidays.
7. TRUST_190920_001.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.
8. TRUST_190920_004.JPG: The Reverend Robert Brooks, standing, presides over the cornerstone-laying ceremonies for the current Lincoln Temple UCC building in 1928 Photo by Addison Scurlock.
9. TRUST_190920_007.JPG: City Within a City Greater U Street Heritage Trail 7 Like a Village Churches have deep roots in the life of this historic African American community. A number of congregations in this immediate area, including Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ on this corner and Vermont Avenue Baptist Church just one block away, date back to the Civil War. At the time, Union Soldiers at Camp Barker at 13th and R Streets and the Wisewell Barracks at 7th and P Streets offered protection and assistance for freedmen fleeing the South. These Churches are a fraction of the religious institutions to be found everywhere in this neighborhood -- in storefronts, in grand buildings with nineteenth-century towers and spires, and in modern structures. In addition to serving as places of worship, they have been and continue to be centers of community activity. They have been filled with music, not only by church choirs., but by such internationally known artists as Leontyne Price and Roland Hayes. The ministers and members of neighborhood churches have also been in the forefront of the struggle for equal rights. Strategy meetings, lectures, and rallies have most often found a base of operations in church basements and Sunday School rooms. The families of the neighborhood developed deep ties, sometimes for generations, with other families in these churches , and there was much visiting back and forth between congregations. These relationships were further repeated and deepened in the schools. One old-timer put this way -- "It was like a village."
10. TRUST_190920_010.JPG: Lincoln Temple Church services in the 1940s
11. TRUST_190920_013.JPG: Lincoln Temple Men's Club, Speaker & Chorus 1st Annual Men's Day, Feb. 2, 1919.
12. TRUST_190920_015.JPG: New Negro Alliance Poster, 1930s.
13. TRUST_190920_017.JPG: Mass Meeting, 1943
14. TRUST_190920_019.JPG: Leontyne Price
15. TRUST_190920_021.JPG: Music Season: Helen Phillips and Roland Hayes.
16. TRUST_190920_023.JPG: The Tenth Street Baptist Church on the southeast corner of 11th and R was founded as Little Zion Church
17. TRUST_190920_026.JPG: Vermont Avenue Baptist Church at Vermont Avenue and R Street, began during the Civil War.
18. TRUST_190920_028.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.
19. TRUST_190920_031.JPG: The spacious front hall and reception desk of the original 12th Street YMCA, seen here in 1912, have been restored to their former elegance as have other historic rooms in this fine Italianate building, now the home of the Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage.
20. TRUST_190920_039.JPG: City Within a City Greater U Street Heritage Trail 6 A Home Away From Home The Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage occupies the historic Italian Renaissance-style building of the 12th Street YMCA, known after 1972 as the Anthony Bowen YMCA. The 12th Street YMCA was the first African American YMCA in the nation, formed in 1853 by Anthony Bowen, a former slave who became a civic leader in the nation's capital and a member of the city's Common Council. This YMCA met in various places for decades until it raised $100,000 to build this structure between 1907 and 1912. The architect was Sidney W. Pittman, one of America's first African American architects, and the son-in-Law of Booker T. Washington. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1908. The 12th Street YMCA became a community center for Black Washingtonians from around the city. It was a place to play sports, learn to swim, meet friends, start organizations and mobilize for a cause, including the planning of important civil rights initiatives. For many, including travelers in segregated Washington and Howard University students, the Y dormitories were a home away from home. For youth, it was a place to find role models. Poet Langston Hughes lived here in the early 1920s while he was writing his first poetry. Dr. Charles Drew, who pioneered the preservation of blood plasma, was an active member. The basketball skills of Coach John Thompson of Georgetown University were discovered here, and world heavyweight champion Joe Louis was a frequent visitor. Today, the building, owned by The Thurgood Marshall Center Trust, is the headquarters of the Shaw Heritage Trust, For Love of Children and other organizations that make it, once again, a center of community activity. It is named for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who met here with colleagues to develop legal strategies for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education civil rights case. The U Street/Shaw Heritage Museum and Exhibitions just inside the front door will tell you more.
21. TRUST_190920_042.JPG: The 12th Street YMCA.
22. TRUST_190920_045.JPG: President Theodore Roosevelt at the cornerstone laying in 1908, captured on film by noted African American photographer Addison Scurlock.
23. TRUST_190920_048.JPG: Anthony Bowen.
24. TRUST_190920_050.JPG: The poet Langston Hughes, far right, lived here in the early 1920s.
25. TRUST_190920_053.JPG: Thurgood Marshall
26. TRUST_190920_055.JPG: "Colored Americans of Washington, D.C., UNITE TO-DAY. Attend War Workers Meeting Thurs., October 28, 1943 ... at Y.M.C.A. Auditorium 1816 12th Street, N.W. ..."
27. TRUST_190920_058.JPG: Heavyweight champion Joe Louis, right, was a frequent visitor to the Y.
28. TRUST_190920_061.JPG: Boys exercise in the gymnasium in 1913
29. TRUST_190920_069.JPG: Pearl Bailey, center, was one of many name entertainers who frequented the Club Caverns, now the Bohemian Cavern, both as a performer and a guest. She got her start on U Street, often called Washington "Black Broadway." 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.
30. TRUST_190920_078.JPG: City Within a City Greater U Street Heritage Trail 3 "We had everything we needed right here." Black businesses sprung up everywhere on U Street in the early 1900s. As racial segregation increased, African Americans in Washington began a tradition of protest. They also responded by creating institutions of there own. In the 25 years from 1895 to 1920, the number of Black-owned businesses in this area skyrocketed from about 15 to more than 300. They clustered around U Street. John Whitelaw Lewis led the way in a true rags to riches story. Arriving in Washington with few resources in 1896, he took a job as a brick carrier. He soon organized his co-workers into a building and loan association, and in 1913 turned it into the Industrial Savings Bank, located on its original site directly across 11th Street. Reorganized by Jesse Mitchell in the 1930s, it continues in his family today as one of the oldest Black financial institutions in the nation. The bank building and the building on this corner were both financed by John Whitelaw Lewis and designed by Black architect Isaiah T. Hatton in 1919 and 1922, respectively. The Bohemian Cavern of today is a revival of a long tradition on this spot. The Crystal Caverns began here in 1926, giving way to the Club Caverns, and then the Bohemian Caverns in the 1960s--a setting for the music of John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, and Ramsey Lewis, among many others. The Ramsey Lewis Trio recorded the popular album,In Crowd, here. These and other Black-owned businesses created a world unto itself. Those who remember say, "We had everything we needed right here."
31. TRUST_190920_083.JPG: Party at the Club [Crystal] Caverns in the early 1940s. The current Bohemian Cavern has reproduced the original cave-like setting.
32. TRUST_190920_086.JPG: The Madame C.J. Walker College of Beauty Culture once operated at 1306 U Street.
33. TRUST_190920_088.JPG: One of many pool halls along U Street, about 1940.
34. TRUST_190920_090.JPG: John Whitelaw Lewis, above left, financed the Industrial Savings Bank, seen above in the 1940s.
35. TRUST_190920_093.JPG: John Whitelaw Lewis, above left, financed the Industrial Savings Bank, seen above in the 1940s.
36. TRUST_190920_098.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.
37. TRUST_190920_102.JPG: The Lincoln Theater anchors a busy U Street about 1940. Photographer Robert H. McNeil was looking east from where you stand toward the lights of since-demolished Griffith Stadium.
38. TRUST_190920_104.JPG: City within a City Greater U Street Heritage Trail 1 You Had to Wear a Tie 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.
39. TRUST_190920_108.JPG: Duke Ellington, left, frequently returned home from New York to play at the Howard Theater at 7th and T.
40. TRUST_190920_109.JPG: Louis Armstrong playing the Lincoln Colonnade, a popular dance hall that once operated behind the Lincoln Theater.
41. TRUST_190920_111.JPG: Capital Classic parade headed for U Street in the 1950s.
42. TRUST_190920_116.JPG: 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.
43. TRUST_190920_119.JPG: Ushers welcome patrons, above, to the Lincoln Theater about 1940.
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2019 photos: Overnight trips this year: (May, August, October, December) Four trips to New York City (including the United Nations, Flushing, and the New York Comic-Con), (July) My 14th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con (including sites in Utah). (August) Massachusetts (Boston, Stockbridge, and Springfield) to experie/nce rain in another state, and (August) Asheville, NC to visit Dad and his wife Dixie. Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Number of photos taken this year: about 582,000.
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