The Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site is a three-story Victorian rowhouse with a red brick façade, indistinguishable at a glance from its neighbors on Ninth Street. Despite its modest exterior, this building served as the…
U Street Black Broadway
This self-guided walk leads you through the heart of D.C.'s historic Black cultural renaissance, highlighting legendary jazz venues, civil rights landmarks, and community institutions that defined Black Broadway.
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1. Carter G. Woodson National Historic Site
2. The Howard Theatre
The Howard Theatre at six hundred twenty T Street Northwest is recognizable by its restored facade, which blends Italian Renaissance, Beaux-Arts, and neoclassical styles. When it opened in nineteen ten, it was billed as the largest theater…
3. African American Civil War Museum
The African American Civil War Memorial stands apart as a bronze nine-foot sculpture titled The Spirit of Freedom, which depicts three infantrymen and a sailor. Behind this statue, two curved walls are inscribed with the names of two…
4. Bohemian Caverns
The Bohemian Caverns occupies a windowless basement beneath the corner of Eleventh and U Streets. You can identify the site by the distinct architectural oddity of its past incarnations: a ceiling once fitted with artificial plaster…
5. Industrial Bank
The Industrial Bank is a two-story building located at two thousand eleven street Northwest, recognizable by its prominent neon signage near the corner of U Street. It stands on a site historically central to Washington’s Black business…
6. True Reformer Building
The True Reformer Building occupies the southwest corner of twelfth and U Streets. You can identify this five-story structure by the buff brick on its primary facades and the mural of Duke Ellington often displayed on its exterior.…
7. Ben's Chili Bowl
Ben’s Chili Bowl occupies a building at twelve thirteen U Street Northwest that dates back to nineteen oh nine, when it first served as a silent movie house called the Minnehaha. Trinidadian immigrant Ben Ali and his fiancée, Virginia…
8. Lincoln Theatre
The Lincoln Theatre is a neoclassical building on U Street, recognizable by its tan-colored brick facade and a large, central three-part window set within a slightly projecting bay. Opened in nineteen twenty-two, it became the cultural…
9. Whitelaw Apartments
The Whitelaw Apartments are a four-story, U-shaped building of buff brick and limestone trim that sits on the corner of thirteenth and T streets. Completed in nineteen nineteen, it was developed by John Whitelaw Lewis, a former…