Stevens, Thaddeus, School

About this property

The Thaddeus Stevens School is a historic African American school building located at 1050 21st Street, N.W., in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It houses classrooms for the nearby and also as an early childhood center. With a 92% increase of freed slaves between 1840 and 1860, a large population of this demographic migrated to wards 1 and 2 of Washington, DC. This is proved by the census data of the wards of Washington, DC from 1860. This influx of freed slaves to the Foggy Bottom neighborhood caused apparent demand for a public school. The Stevens School was erected in 1868 because the city needed a public colored school and the most feasible place to put it was on square 73 which was accessible by both wards 1 and 2. It seemed apt to build a school for freed black in this area, as it was derelict and unsanitary. Within square 73 the school was built on lots 22, 23, and 24. The property that provided the grounds for the Stevens School was initially privately owned by Alfred Jones and his wife in 1868. These lots were bought in 1868 for a combined value of $7,413.14. Once the physical building was built, the final cost was $89,099.17. For the time, this was considered to be inexpensive, both for the land and the development of a public school. In 1932 the American Banking and trust company purchased lot 20. The Stevens School was comparatively smaller than other public, namely white, contemporary institutions such as the Grimke School and Slater School. The Stevens School was under the jurisdiction of the Board of Colored Schools and many of the board members were African American. The D.C Board of Colored Schools was consolidated in 1880 into one Board of Public Schools that had control over both white and black public schools. It was the first government-funded school for African-Americans. Jack Moore of the Associated Press described it as "the cornerstone of D.C.‘s historically African-American West End community". An addition was built in 1885 and it was partially rebuilt and enlarged again in 1895–96. A pioneering school for African-Americans, it was named for Thaddeus Stevens, the Radical Republican abolitionist congressman from Pennsylvania. The Preparatory High School for Negro Youth was housed in the building after it was founded in 1871 and later moved becoming the M Street High School and ultimately Dunbar High School. The school's enrollment declined due to gentrification in the 1960s as residential areas became offices. An oral history document at Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives stated that Stevens was located in "virtually an asphalt neighborhood" by 1976. In January 1977 President of the United States Jimmy Carter enrolled his daughter Amy Carter at Stevens. Moore stated that this made the school "one of the most famous schools in America seemingly overnight." At the time it had an extended day program which was uncommon for American schools of the era. According to school counselor Jane Jackson Harley the program was a way to attract enrollment so the school could remain open. Moore stated that this program meant that Stevens began to function as "a sort of magnet school for the children of downtown office workers, and it boosted enrollment back into safe territory."

Location

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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