Among the Library of Congress photographs were photographs of the John Mercer Langston School, which sits on the unit block of P St NW in Truxton Circle. I discovered photographs of the Langston School among the several photographs that photojournalist Marjory Collins took in March 1942. However, like the Slater School, it was not labeled. Thank goodness these schools are located so close to each other that this slice of Truxton Circle history has been captured.
Langston School taken March 1942
Collins, it seems was aiming to focus on the woman in the hat, not so much the school building.
[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Washington, D.C. Schoolteacher] Library of CongressIt was part of a series of photos of a school teacher. As the teacher seemed to live in a whole other part of town a goes unnamed, just like the school, I’m not particularly interested in following her story.
Langston Elementary was a functional school. It had students and teachers and staff. But now it is just an empty historic building:
Abandoned Langston School on P St NW.
The images below are from 2007. The building has been better secured in the past 16 years.
Western side of the Langston School on P St NW.Langston School taken May 30, 2007Rear of Langston? May 30, 2007Broken Windows, Langston School. Taken May 30, 2007
I’ve been clearing out the draft folder. This one is from April 4, 2009. I’ll add my thoughts at the end.
New Joists. Old Brick.
I spent months giving thought to how I wanted to redesign my roughly 1000sq ft (not counting cellar) house. I radically changed the second floor layout, moving the bathroom and making one bedroom a really big closet… with a bed. So when I see other small houses and it appears that was designed poorly, I wonder if they took into consideration the small space or just thought they could just reduce the measurements, squeeze stuff in and it would be alright.
Here are a few thoughts-
Can it get through the door/up the stairs. This was a very important question in the early years of my house. Because of some stupid pipe near the front door, it didn’t open all the way. I nearly had to throw out the comfy chair because said chair barely made it though the door and took some wall with it. The fridge required taking the door off the hinges and lifting it through a couple of passageways. It would have been easier if they took it through the back door on the alley side but the delivery guys weren’t going to even entertain that thought. Then there is the issue of never being able to have a double bed box spring, unless I was planning on sleeping in the living room. There are corners to turn and tight spots and if what you’re hauling to the 2nd or 3rd floor is big there is a chance it’s staying in the living room too. I considered space and movement issues. The doorway is still small but there are no stairs to hit nor a wall to gouge if bringing in a couch. The ceiling heights and lack of obstructions on the 2nd floor now allow for a large mattress or other furniture, as long as it can get up the stairs.
A size 12 in size 8 clothing. There are things that just overpower a space. Like a huge sink in a 1/2 bath, that takes up half of the bathroom. And that just draws attention to the fact that it is a small space. There is the mid-sized bathroom with a big jacuzzi tub shoehorned in.
[July 2023 thoughts]
I oversaw 4 rehab projects on my old DC home before selling it in 2020. The first was in 2003/2004 to update the kitchen where I had 1 foot of counter space. The second was the big project where the 1st and 2nd floors were gutted. The third was finishing the basement. The last one was in 2015 when we added an addition above the kitchen. All this changed my dumpy 1000 sq ft home to a nice little 1700 sq. ft home. All the renovations and work put into it was about $300K.
There are drawbacks to open floor plans. Sound and smell. But you don’t have to worry about getting large things from one room to another. The stairs were still tight, but not as tight as before. We had a huge dresser at the top of the stairs which required large men with upper body strength to move over the banister, but there was more room.
In the previous postings for parts 1-4 we looked at buildings south and north of the Dunbar High School field in 1942. Now let’s look west.
Just to orient you, here is a USGS aerial map from 1951.
And now a look on the west (left) end of the field.
Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information photograph collection (Library of Congress), ca 1942
Those buildings no longer exist. It is now just part of the Dunbar track. I wonder it that taller 3 story detached building was the old Twinings school?
Untitled photo, possibly related to: Washington, D.C. Military unit in Armstrong Technical High School which is trained by the regular Army, a tradition in all Washington schools. Library of Congress. 1942.
We are looking north from the Dunbar High School field. We see the bleachers. We do not see Armstrong in the background which means we see more buildings that no longer exist on the 200 block of O St NW.
Below, more of the same.
Swinging to the other end of the bleachers looking along O Street, we see another part of the field with female Dunbar students.
Review girl cadets at Dunbar High School. 1942.
Here we clearly see Armstrong High School in the background.
In part 3 we look on the other side of the Dunbar High School fields in 1942, towards the bleachers.
In the above 1951 aerial of the neighborhood, find Dunbar and its field with what looks like tennis courts in the lower right hand corner of the campus. Now on the opposite side of the field see a long light colored or white stretch of something, those are the bleachers.
Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information photograph collection (Library of Congress)
In the background you can see Armstrong Technical High School and a little corner of old Dunbar High School.
Washington D.C. Military unit in Armstrong Technical High School being trained by an U.S. Army lieutenant. Library of Congress. C. 1942
In the above photograph, we see more of Armstrong on the 100-200 block of O Street NW.
Military unit in Armstrong Technical High School being trained by an U.S. Army lieutenant. Library of Congress.
Now same day in March 1942, same event.
Washington, D.C. Military unit in Armstrong Technical High School being trained by a U.S. Army lieutenant. LOC
Behind them appears to be the National Homeopathic Hospital. Below is a photo of the hospital from 1910.
National Homeopathic Hospital, ca. 1910
You can see the front of the hospital in the top photograph. In the second photo you can see part of the old Dunbar High School building. Despite it being an event for Armstrong High School boys, it appears they are on Dunbar’s campus.
Below is an aerial photo from 1951 or 1952 taken by the US Geological Survey. Keeping in mind where the two tallish buildings of the hospital sat, and the corner of old Dunbar, you can see where the boys were parading.
I’ve been looking at the Library of Congress’ photo collection online for Truxton Circle related images. I found a slew of Armstrong High School photos, and some Dunbar High School images, some of them outside. Looking at them I noticed buildings in the background that no longer exist and tried to figure out where the photos were looking.
The LC photos were from March 1942. Below is an aerial photo from 1951 or 1952 taken by the US Geological Survey.
Armstrong as a building still exists.
Dunbar exists, but not the original building. The 3rd building for Dunbar High School exists on that block.
A lot of buildings shown in the above aerial photo no longer exist. Currently there are no buildings on the east side and southwest side of Armstrong, as there were in the 1951 photo. Dunbar now takes up the whole block but in 1951 had structures on its western side. The Homeopathic Hospital got absorbed by the New York Avenue playground.
In later posts I will compare the 1942 photos to the 1951 aerial photo and try to match up the buildings or structures.
