The Charlotte Forten Grimké House is a historic house at 1608 R Street NW in the

Dupont Circle Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW ...

neighborhood of

Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. From 1881 to 1886, the house was home to

Charlotte Forten Grimké Charlotte Louise Bridges Forten Grimké (August 17, 1837 – July 23, 1914) was an African American anti-slavery activist, poet, and educator. She grew up in a prominent abolitionist family in Philadelphia. She taught school for years, including d ...

(1837–1914), an African-American abolitionist and educator, one of the first Northerners to enter Union-controlled areas of the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

in order to teach

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...

and their children. The house was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1976.

Description and history

The Charlotte Forten Grimké House is located northeast of Dupont Circle, on the south side of R Street, roughly midway between 16th and 17th Streets. It is a two-story masonry

row house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house (British English, UK) or townhouse (American English, US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings party ...

, built out of red brick. It is two bays wide, with a single-story polygonal bay on the left and entrance on the right. The door is topped by a transom window framed by a bracketed hood. The bay, main roof line, and an entrance hood all have a heavy modillioned cornice. Windows on both levels are set in segmental-arch openings with soldier brick headers. The building's construction date is not known. It was home to Charlotte Forten Grimké and her husband, Rev. Francis Grimké, from 1881 to 1885. Charlotte Forten was born to wealthy African Americans in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1838, and was steeped in abolitionist activity from an early age. In 1855 she completed training at a

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

and became a teacher and abolitionist activist. She wrote articles for

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...

's ''Liberator'', the leading anti-slavery publication of the day. During the

she was chosen to teach former

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in the South, on the Sea Islands of

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

as part of the "

Port Royal Experiment The Port Royal Experiment was a program begun during the American Civil War in which former slaves successfully worked on the land abandoned by planters. In 1861 the Union captured the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and their main ha ...

". Following the Civil War, she was known as a supporter of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

, including suffrage; and as a teacher and writer. In 1894 she was co-founder of the

Colored Women's League The Colored Women's League (CWL) of Washington, D.C., was a woman's club, organized by a group of African-American women in June 1892, with Helen Appo Cook as president. The primary mission of this organization was the national union of colored ...

. She published poetry expressing her activism before the war. Her journals, reprinted in the 1980s, are significant as works by a free black woman in the antebellum North. In 1878 Forten married

Francis Grimké Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome *Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Francis (surname) Places *Rural Mu ...

, nephew to the activist

Grimké sisters Sarah Moore Grimké (1792–1873) and Angelina Emily GrimkéUnited States. National Park Service. "Grimke Sisters." U.S. Department of the Interior, October 8, 2014. Accessed:October 14, 2014. (1805–1879), known as the Grimké sisters, were th ...

. The couple resided at this house from 1881 to 1885, when Francis was pastor at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grimke, Charlotte Forten, House Dupont Circle Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C. African-American history of Washington, D.C.

Description and history

See also

References