John Mercer Langston School is a historic structure located in the

Truxton Circle Truxton Circle is a neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C. Politically, it is located in Ward 5. Truxton Circle is bordered by New Jersey Avenue to the west; Florida Avenue to the north; New York Avenue to the south; and North Capitol Str ...

neighborhood in

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, ...

The two-story

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

building was designed by Appleton P. Clark, Jr. The structure was completed in 1902. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2013.

History

The school was built for African-Americans in 1902 to accommodate the overcrowding conditions in the neighboring

John Fox Slater Elementary School John Fox Slater Elementary School is an historic structure located in the Truxton Circle neighborhood in Washington, D.C. The two-story brick building was designed by Edward Clark and completed in 1891. It was listed on the National Register of ...

. At the time the building was constructed, public education in the District of Columbia was segregated by race. It was one of several schools for African-Americans along First Street, NW between L and P Streets. Langston School was one of 31 schools opened between 1895 and 1902 during a period of steady population growth in the District, including along the North Capitol Street corridor. On April 3, 1901, the school board voted to name the new school after

John Mercer Langston John Mercer Langston (December 14, 1829 – November 15, 1897) was an American abolitionist, attorney, educator, activist, diplomat, and politician. He was the founding dean of the law school at Howard University and helped create the department ...

(1829-1897), who was the first African-American congressman from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and was also a distinguished diplomat, academic and lawyer in the District of Columbia. The school was dedicated in November 1902 and held one day before the fifth anniversary of Langston's death. A portrait of Langston was presented to the school on behalf of his family. Slater and Langston Schools were operated as independent schools until the late 1910s when the Slater principal, Anna E. Thompson, became principal of both schools. During this time the schools were referred to jointly as Slater-Langston. When Slater was annexed to the Margaret Murray Washington Vocational School in 1951, Langston continued as an elementary school. The school was generally overcrowded before the Supreme Court's 1954 decision banning school segregation. By 1982 the overcrowded condition had reversed and enrollment steadily declined until it was closed in 1997. After its services as a school the building became a homeless shelter. It is now empty.

Current

The property was listed in the

in 2013. The area of significance is architecture, education, ethnic heritage/black. The property is currently not in use.

Architecture

The Langston School is a two-story, red brick building that was designed in the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

style. It housed eight classrooms, one for each grade level 1-8th. l. The main

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

features two entrance towers, one for the boys and one for the girls. A

Star of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...

is placed in each of the blind arches above the second floor windows. The building has an asymmetrical arraignment due to a planned west wing that was never built. It was designed by Washington architect Appleton P. Clark, Jr. Langston School is significant in the area of Architecture since it is an excellent example of a public school building built for African American students and devised to accommodate an increased need for new school buildings in the city.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Langston, John Mercer, School School buildings completed in 1902 School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Italianate architecture in Washington, D.C. African-American history of Washington, D.C. 1902 establishments in Washington, D.C. Truxton Circle