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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." |