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_200417_01.JPG: City Within a City Greater U Street Heritage Trail 8 The Whitelaw Hotel and "the Duke" The elegant Whitelaw Hotel at the corner of 13th and T Street opened its doors in 1919, offering African American travelers their first opportunity to stay in a first-class hotel in the segregated nation's capital. Inside they found a lobby with fine rugs and potted palms, a richly decorated dining room, comfortable rooms, and convenience shops on the first floor. The Whitelaw was the creation of African America business entrepreneur John Whitelaw Lewis, who also built the Industrial Bank building on U Street. A former construction worker turned builder and financier, he raised the funds for its construction, and hired a Black builder and Isaiah T. Hatton, a Black architect, to make it a reality. Its restaurant/ballroom was a favorite choice for elite dinner parties and dances. The clientele included many of the famous of the day – Cab Calloway, Joe Louis, and the neighborhood's own native son, Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington. Duke Ellington lived on this block from age 11 to 18 – at 1806 13th Street, from 1910 to 1914, and across the street at 1816 13th Street from 1915 to 1917. While living here he chose music over baseball, soaking up the varied and rich musical traditions of the neighborhood. He was inspired and taught by his gifted teacher at Armstrong High School, Henry Grant, by traveling pianists hanging out in the local pool halls, by choirs and soloists in the neighborhood's many churches, and by teachers at the Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression at 9th and T Streets. Ellington left for better opportunities in New York in 1923, but frequently returned to play the Howard Theater and other clubs in his old neighborhood, where his talent and magnificent style made him the hometown favorite. The Whitelaw Hotel, where he sometimes stayed while visiting here, has now been converted into affordable apartments by Manna, Inc. Its ballroom with stained glass ceiling has been restored to its former grandeur, and continues to be a community gathering place.
2. TRUST_200417_05.JPG: Duke Ellington, seen here playing the Howard Theater in the 1930s, stayed at the Whitelaw Hotel.
3. TRUST_200417_08.JPG: At left is an ad for his band about 1920, before he moved to New York.
4. TRUST_200417_12.JPG: Page from the Whitelaw Hotel register with Duke Ellington's name [1929].
5. TRUST_200417_14.JPG: A woman seated in the Whitelaw Hotel lobby in the 1920s. At right, cooks prepare meals for the Whitelaw dining room.
6. TRUST_200417_17.JPG: At right, cooks prepare meals for the Whitelaw dining room.
7. TRUST_200417_20.JPG: Invitation to party at the Whitelaw Hotel [1936]. (Adelaide J. Robinson). Announcement for "Saturday Evening Supper Dances", and ticket for "First Annual Spring Frolic" [1941].
8. TRUST_200417_30.JPG: The Whitelaw Hotel's fine dining room, seen here in the 1920s, served residents as well as members of the community.
9. TRUST_200418_01.JPG: City Within a City Greater U Street Heritage Trail 14 Riots to Renaissance The corner of 14th and U Streets has been a city crossroads, a neighborhood gathering place, and a stage set for events that have shaken the city and the nation. For city residents, it was the transfer place for crosstown streetcars and buses. For the African American community, it was the heart of a business and professional downtown. It has also been the fault line in the struggle for equal rights for black Americans in the 20th century. Some of the nation's first picket lines walked this corner in the 1930s when the New Negro Alliance protested discrimination in hiring by local businesses. Among the protesters was Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, educator, and advisor to four U.S. presidents. The 1938 United States Supreme Court decision that followed affirmed the constitutional rights that supported the sit-ins of the modern civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In April 1968, this corner was the flashpoint for the riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The violent protest destroyed businesses along 14th Street, 7th Street, and in other parts of the city. In 1986, the Frank G. Reeves Municipal Center rose where the riots had begun, and became both a symbol and a sparkplug for a neighborhood renaissance. New restaurants, shops, and nightclubs, a new subway stop, and the restoration of historic buildings followed, and U Street is once again becoming a lively urban community.
10. TRUST_200418_28.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.
11. TRUST_200418_31.JPG: Shops, apartments, and the popular Booker T movie theater once lined the 1400 block of U Street, seen here looking west from 14th Street in 1950.
12. TRUST_200418_40.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.
13. TRUST_200418_44.JPG: Future physician and pioneer in blood preservation Charles R. Drew, circled, second row from the top, took part in a YMCA winter outing, 1912.
14. TRUST_200418_49.JPG: Anthony Bowen, YMCA Greater U Street Heritage Trail A Place to Grow You are standing at the fourth home of the Anthony Bowen YMCA, named for the formerly enslaved minister who founded the nation's first independent "colored" YMCA. As the YMCA opened in Washington in 1853, slavery was legal. Yet the majority of the city's African Americans were free and faced daily segregation and exclusion from public facilities. These city dwellers needed a place to develop positive spiritual, physical, and social lives. At first the YMCA operated in Reverend Bowen's Southwest Washington home, rented rooms, donated spaces, and a building owned briefly on 11th Street, NW. Then the Reverend Jesse E. Moorland incorporated the club in 1905 as the "colored" branch of the YMCA of the City of Washington. Moorland led the fundraising for the YMCA building that welcomed the community at 1816 12th Street, NW in 1912. For 50 years, it was the only YMCA in the District serving African Americans. Educator and civil rights champion E.B. Henderson introduced basketball to African Americans in DC at the YMCA in 1907. He led the Washington 12 Streeters to victory in the 1910 World Colored Basketball Championships. Future NBA star Elgin Baylor found pick-up games at the Y during the 1940s. Scores of workers, athletes politicians, artists, professionals, and young people found support within the YMCA's halls and gyms. Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall developed strategies to fight segregation there. The Bowen YMCA (renamed in 1972 to pay homage to its founder) closed its historic Twelfth Street facility in 1982 when the rundown building was declared unsafe. The branch re-opened in 1987 in the former Hillcrest Children's Center on this spot to continue providing education, refuge, from troubled times, development of the mind, body, spirit, and community -- the same services first offered by Reverend Bowen in his home.
15. TRUST_200418_77.JPG: Anthony Bowen Way
16. TRUST_200429_05.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.
17. TRUST_200429_09.JPG: Architect George Cooper added elaborate detailing, above, to the Balfour Apartments, left, built in 1900 at 16th and U.
18. TRUST_200429_12.JPG: Architect George Cooper added elaborate detailing, above, to the Balfour Apartments, left, built in 1900 at 16th and U.
19. TRUST_200429_15.JPG: Architect George Totten helped Mary Foote Henderson carry out her grand vision for 16th Street.
20. TRUST_200429_27.JPG: Harry Wardman, right, built the prestigious Northumberland Apartments at 2039 New Hampshire Avenue, seen below and below right, decorated for the holidays.
21. TRUST_200429_43.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.
22. TRUST_200531_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.
23. TRUST_200531_06.JPG: The castle-like mansion of the wealthy and influential Mary Foote Henderson once overlooked the dramatic waterfall of Meridian Hill Park, created on land she donated to the city.
24. TRUST_200531_16.JPG: A capacity crowd fills the promenade for a Summer in the Parks concert in 1968. Reverend Walter Fauntroy, below, addresses a rally in the park that same year.
25. TRUST_200531_24.JPG: The park's grand waterfall, left, was designed in the 1930s. An equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, seen below in 1936, shortly after the park's completion, overlooks the cascade.
26. TRUST_200531_29.JPG: The park's grand waterfall, left, was designed in the 1930s. An equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, seen below in 1936, shortly after the park's completion, overlooks the cascade.
27. TRUST_200531_31.JPG: "Plan of Meridian Hill Park, Washington, D.C."
28. TRUST_200531_35.JPG: City Within a City Greater U Street Heritage Trail 11 A Shared Neighborhood Although Washington, D.C., has been a racially segregated city for much of its history, black and white Washingtonians have shared parts of this neighborhood. The modern building across 15th Street sits on the site of Portner Flats, demolished in 1974. An 1897 apartment building, the Portner was occupied by white residents until the end of World War II. Its grand public dining room and parlors, large, high-ceilinged apartments, and many resident services made it a sought after address. Its elaborate drugstore entrance was a landmark on the corner. In 1945, the Portner Flats became the Dunbar Hotel, at one time the largest black hotel in the nation. It was named for poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, who once lived in the adjacent neighborhood of LeDroit Park. The hotel became a popular gathering place for famous sports and entertainment figures, Howard University faculty, and other black professionals. Just up 15th Street stands St. Augustine Catholic Church, the city's oldest predominantly black Catholic congregation, founded in 1858 at 15th and L Streets. In 1961, the congregation took the dramatic step and merged with a white congregation, St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church, and moved into its 1883 Gothic Revival building. You can see it just north of the old Dunbar Hotel site, at the corner of Fifteenth and V Street. For 20 years, until 1982, it was known as St. Paul and Augustine. Today it continues to actively welcome members of all races and ethnic groups.
29. TRUST_200531_42.JPG: The Portner Flats, top, became the Dunbar Hotel after World War II, with an elaborate drugstore on the corner of 15th and U, right.
30. TRUST_200531_54.JPG: St. Augustine Catholic Church is a landmark at 15th and V Streets. Its 1920s church choir is pictured top right and a 1990s worship service, right.
31. TRUST_200531_65.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.
32. TRUST_200531_69.JPG: A resident relaxes on the porch of the elegant Portner Flats apartment building in 1897, shortly after its reconstruction. It once stood directly across 15th Street.
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