Bruce-Monroe Elementary School at Park View is a bilingual

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Named after

Blanche Bruce Blanche Kelso Bruce (March 1, 1841March 17, 1898) was an American politician who represented Mississippi as a Republican in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. Born into slavery in Prince Edward County, Virginia, he went on to become ...

and

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...

, it has been located in the historic Park View School in the city's Park View neighborhood since 2008. It is part of the

District of Columbia Public Schools The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) is the local public school system for Washington, D.C. It is distinct from the District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (DCPCS), which governs public charter schools in the city. Compositi ...

Park View School

The building was designed by architect

Snowden Ashford Snowden Ashford (1866–1927) was an American architect who worked in Washington, D.C., his native city. Born on January 1, 1866, Ashford was educated at Rittenhouse Academy and at the Christian Brothers Roman Catholic school. He studied archit ...

in 1916. It was listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites on May 24, 2012, and added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 1, 2013. The school continues to serve the community as an elementary school. The origin of the school can be traced back to the efforts of the Park View Citizens' Association and their persistent appeal to Congress for funds to purchase the land and build a school for the white children in their growing neighborhood. Ashford designed the school in his preferred style of Collegiate Gothic. Unusual for an elementary school, Ashford's design included a dedicated auditorium with a notable wooden truss that supports the auditorium roof. Originally a 16-room structure, the school quickly became too small for the needs of the community. In 1920 the progressive platoon school model was adopted, unique in Washington, which helped address the school's space problem. In 1929, 57 Park View students went on strike to protest the school district's attempt to shift enrollment to the Monroe School, in part because of the "gradual encroachment of the colored population on the Monroe School area." In 1931, two new wings were added to the building to again provide room for the growing enrollment.

Blanche Kelso Bruce Elementary School

Cesar Chavez Public Charter School - Bruce Campus DC

The Blanche K. Bruce School was an all-black school and community center during the

Jim Crow era The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...

. In July 1898, the District of Columbia public school trustees ordered that a then new public school building on Marshall Street be named the Bruce School in his honor. The Bruce School building was designed by architect William M. Poindexter in

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

style of red brick with stone and pressed metal trim, with two floors of four rooms each. In 1927, a

Colonial Revival style The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exposition, Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened A ...

eight-room annex was constructed, designed by architect

Albert L. Harris Albert L. Harris (1869 – February 24, 1933) was an American architect who worked primarily in Washington, D.C. He was born in Wales and emigrated to the United States as a young child. He worked for architectural firms in Chicago and Baltimore ...

. Marshall Street later became Kenyon Street. The Bruce School building became the charter Caesar Chavez Prep Middle School in 2009, named for the

Mexican-American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

labor organizer

Cesar Chavez Cesario Estrada Chavez (; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta and lesser known Gilbert Padilla, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), ...

. After the teachers unionized in 2017, the school was closed by the Chavez Schools in 2019. The building was designated a D.C. historic site on November 20, 2014, and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on March 31, 2015.

James Monroe Elementary School

Opened in 1889 as an all-white school, the James Monroe School was switched to an all-black school in 1931 as the neighborhood's racial makeup changed and white enrollment declined. It was razed in 1971, with the exception of its auditorium, to make way for the integrated Bruce-Monroe Elementary School.

Bruce-Monroe Elementary School

In 1969, Congress appropriated funds to construct the Bruce-Monroe school to replace the Bruce and Monroe Schools; construction began in 1971. In the fall of 1972, the Bruce-Monroe Elementary School opened on

Georgia Avenue Georgia Avenue is a major north-south artery in Northwest, Washington, D.C., Northwest Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Maryland. In Washington, D.C., and for a short distance in Silver Spring, Maryland, Georgia Avenue is also U.S. Rout ...

in Park View north of

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

as an integrated school with an open-space classroom design. In 2008, the Bruce-Monroe Elementary School was relocated from Georgia Avenue to the Park View School campus. The former building, including the historic Monroe auditorium, was razed in 2009. Following local activism to resist the construction of a parking lot, the school's former location became the Bruce Monroe Community Park and Garden in 2010.

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places Gothic Revival architecture in Washington, D.C. Public elementary schools in Washington, D.C. School buildings completed in 1916 School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. District of Columbia Public Schools 1916 establishments in Washington, D.C.