Alexander Crummell School

The Alexander Crummell School is an Elizabethan Revival school building, located at 1900 Gallaudet Street and Kendall Street, Northeast, Washington, D.C., in the Ivy City neighborhood.

Alexander Crummell School
Alexander Crummell School in 2008
Alexander Crummell School is located in Washington, D.C.
Alexander Crummell School
Alexander Crummell School is located in the District of Columbia
Alexander Crummell School
Alexander Crummell School is located in the United States
Alexander Crummell School
LocationNE., Washington, D.C.
Coordinates38°54′49″N 76°59′10″W / 38.91361°N 76.98611°W / 38.91361; -76.98611
Built1910
ArchitectSnowden Ashford
Architectural styleElizabethan Revival
NRHP reference No.03000671[1]
Added to NRHPJuly 25, 2003[2]

History edit

It was designed by Snowden Ashford in 1910, and named for educator and Episcopal priest the Rev. Alexander Crummell.[3] It was built in 1911 by Allan T. Howlson, for $44,987.00.[4] It was dedicated on November 23, 1911. It was closed in 1977. A community group used the school for a preschool, library, job training and daycare center. During the 1990s, the property was used by an automobile auctioneer.

In 2012 the District government, under Mayor Grey, decided to relocate tour bus parking from Union Station to the Crummell School, paving the schoolyard, fencing-in the property, and adding pylons to protect the historic building from buses running into it.[5] Empower DC sued the DC government, and won injunctions preventing the city from actually using the historic schoolyard, dedicated to the teaching of African Americans, as a parking lot.[6] The city, blocked from using it as a tour bus parking lot, dropped the tour bus plan in 2016, instead putting an RFP out for private developers to bid on.[7]

It was listed by the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board, on May 23, 2002.[8] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, in 2003.[9] The DC Preservation League placed it on its endangered list.[10]

In 2016 it was part of a redevelopment plan.[11] As of November 2020, the building is still vacant.[12]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ LandmarkHunter.com | Alexander Crummell School
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  3. ^ "Alexander Crummell School". Archived from the original on September 29, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2012.
  4. ^ https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/03000671_text
  5. ^ "Ivy City, tired of being a D.C. 'dumping ground,' takes on Gray over bus depot". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
  6. ^ "Activists oppose Union Station bus plan". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
  7. ^ "Crummell School Site/ Our RFP | dmped". dmped.dc.gov. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
  8. ^ June 3, 2002 - News - Historic Crummell School gets D.C. landmark status
  9. ^ "Alexander Crummell Elementary School, African American Heritage Trail | Cultural Tourism DC". Archived from the original on March 26, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2011.
  10. ^ "Endangered Places - DC Preservation League". DC Preservation League. Retrieved 2018-07-11.
  11. ^ Andrew Giambrone (2016-11-03). "Long Vacant, Historically Black School Site in D.C. Gets Redevelopment Plan". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  12. ^ "Rally Calls for Renovation of Ivy City's Historic Crummell School 109 Years After its Opening". The Washington Informer. 2020-11-23. Retrieved 2021-01-30.

External links edit