schools – Page 2 – Truxton Is In Shaw

Piecing Together Lost Truxton Circle or What the what am I looking at? Pt 2

Continuing on from Part 1….

Look at this photo taken in 1942.

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.

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.

Piecing Together Lost Truxton Circle or What the what am I looking at? Pt 1

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.

The Homeopathic Hospital no longer exists either.

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.

Armstrong and Maybe the Homeopathic Hospital

This is a 1942 photo of the military unit for Armstrong High School. I think, and I could be wrong, they are on the Dunbar High School’s field. From this view there are two tall buildings in the background. Those buildings do not exist in current day Truxton Circle. I think they are part of the Homeopathic Hospital.

Look Ma No Safety Goggles- Armstrong High School 1942

Learning to use an electrical jigsaw to make model airplanes for the U.S. Navy at the Armstrong Technical High School. Library of Congress.

African American students at Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, DC use a jigsaw in 1942.

Thank You For Your Service Kid- Armstrong High School 1942

Military unit in Armstrong Technical High School being trained by a U.S. Army lieutenant, Library of Congress

Happy Memorial Day to all who have served. Be ye ROTC, whatever this was, or any of the branches of our military. Thank you for your service.

Armstrong High School March 1942

Let’s take a break from the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company houses and look at some old photos of Truxton Circle schools.

Below is Armstrong Technical High School in March 1942.

Armstrong High School March 1942 — Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information photograph collection (Library of Congress)

If I were to guess this is probably the P Street side of the school. Free free to argue with me in the comments.

Duke Ellington, for whom a bunch of buildings around DC are named, attended Armstrong to study art and design.

Currently, Armstrong is the location of one of the Friendship Charter Schools for Pre-K and elementary aged children.

Back to School, for what?

If you look at data for Black children’s literacy rates in America, it is just so depressing. The shut down of schools during Covid didn’t help. There is lots of blame to go around. Parents, community, culture, education fads, and the kids themselves play a part.

So take your anti-depression meds and lets look at Shaw education as school gets back in session.

Back in the Winter of 2019-2020 I looked at all the Shaw schools I could get data on. To be fair, I’ll stick to the 2018-2019 PARCC data, because in 2020 everything went to Hell in a hand basket. Even if there is 2019-2020 data, it would be worse.

Black students	PARCC Test	Meets/Exceeds	Below Adv & Failing
Dunbar	ELA 2018-19	16.50%	83.50%
Dunbar	Math 2018-19	0.50%	99.50%
Dunbar	Males ELA	13.40%	86.60%
Dunbar	Males Math	0.90%	99.10%
Cleveland E	ELA 2018-19	20.30%	79.70%
Cleveland E	Math 2018-19	20.30%	79.70%
Cleveland E	Males ELA	10.80%	89.20%
Cleveland E	Males Math	24.30%	75.70%
St. Augustine**	ELA 2017-2018	49%	51%
St. Augustine**	Math 2017-2018	51%	49%
Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary	ELA 2018-19	9.20%	90.80%
Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary	Math 2018-19	22.90%	77.10%
Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary	Males ELA	7.30%	92.70%
Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary	Males Math	18.20%	81.80%
Center City PCS – Shaw	ELA 2018-19	26.50%	73.50%
Center City PCS – Shaw	Math 2018-19	28.90%	71.10%
Center City PCS – Shaw	Males ELA	13.60%	86.40%
Center City PCS – Shaw	Males Math	31.80%	68.20%
KIPP- LEAD (1-4)	ELA 2018-19	39.70%	60.30%
KIPP- LEAD (1-4)	Math 2018-19	68.60%	31.40%
KIPP- LEAD (1-4)	Males ELA	30.00%	70.00%
KIPP- LEAD (1-4)	Males Math	62.20%	37.80%
KIPP- WILL (5-8)	ELA 2018-19	36.40%	63.60%
KIPP- WILL (5-8)	Math 2018-19	32.10%	67.90%
KIPP- WILL (5-8)	Males ELA	29.30%	70.70%
KIPP- WILL (5-8)	Males Math	28.70%	71.30%
Garrison ES	ELA 2018-19	37.50%	62.50%
Garrison ES	Math 2018-19	27.50%	72.50%
Garrison ES	Males ELA	45.50%	54.50%
Garrison ES	Males Math	36.40%	63.60%
Meridian	ELA 2018-19	16.80%	83.20%
Meridian	Math 2018-19	14.20%	85.80%
Meridian	Males ELA	14.70%	85.30%
Meridian	Males Math	14.70%	85.30%
Mundo Verde	ELA 2018-19	22.00%	78.00%
Mundo Verde	Math 2018-19	22.00%	78.00%
Mundo Verde	Males ELA	20.00%	80.00%
Mundo Verde	Males Math	25.00%	75.00%
Seaton ES	ELA 2018-19	35.00%	65.00%
Seaton ES	Math 2018-19	37.50%	62.50%
Seaton ES	Males ELA	31.60%	68.40%
Seaton ES	Males Math	26.30%	73.70%

**St. Augustine is a predominately African American school and does not break down data by race.

I am left asking myself what percentage of Black students who are below reading level or does not meet expectations in math acceptable? It sure as heck isn’t 99% or 80% as it is at Dunbar.

Rando Alley not in Shaw- More of O’Brien Court NW/ Stevens School Garden

I’m just throwing this out there. It was in a collection of things I had from the National Archives, Still Picture Division. Why I have these, I don’t know.

I previously posted about O’Brien Ct. Here is another page about O’Brien Ct but regarding the Stevens School Garden Project. Look kids, school gardens are nothing new. The Stevens School was a school for Black children at the time, which was 1936. Now, it is a Pre-K school.

1914 Howard University Students in Shaw

I wanted to see if by chance Arthur B. McKinney was in a Howard University yearbook. The yearbooks or student yearbook type publications go as far back as 1914. I did not spot him in that yearbook. I don’t know if those things covered the medical school.

But I did spot something interesting, addresses. This was not repeated in later yearbooks. So here is a small list of the students in Shaw:

Annie H. Catlett- 943 (or 913) St St NW

Frank Robert Cook- 1636 10th St NWCeretta Desmukes- 209 O St NW

Mark E. Rivers- 103 or 403 U St NWWalter S. Savoy- 1325 12th St NW

Herbert L. Stevens- 922 Florida Avenue NW

Final Presentation for Langston and Slater Schools

I’m going to take a break from Dr. Carter Grumpypants Woodson to bring up a presentation regarding Truxton Circle’s eyesores of Langston and Slater schools.

I’m just going to copy/paste Bradley A. Thomas’ letter:

The final presentation of the ten proposals for the redevelopment of the Langston and Slater school buildings will take place this Thursday, February 11, 2021, beginning at 6:30 pm. Please review the slides from each of the applicants which I want to thank Bates Area Civic Association President David Hall for putting together into a single link.

You can view all ten of the proposals here .

To view this Thursday’s final disposition presentation, log in at the link below by 6:20 pm on February 11, 2021:

https://dcnet.webex.com/dcnet/onstage/g.php?MTID=e12fcd01a2ec9c1319d6d2f603f937ff8

Five days later, on February 16, 2021, ANC5E will vote on a resolution specifying which elements of the various presentations our community wants to see in the final development plan. We are not being asked to state a preference for one development team over the others. We are being asked to indicate which ideas we like best. If you want to, and haven’t already done so, you can submit to me your individual preferences anytime between now and 11:59 pm on Friday, February 12, 2021. After that, over the weekend, I will put together our collective thinking into a concise resolution which I will ask the Commissioners of ANC5E to support at our public meeting on the following Tuesday night.

For the record, so far four residents have sent me their thoughts and I suspect that after the final presentation on this Thursday, I will get several more. Thank you all for participating in this process which will impact our neighborhood for decades to come.

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Because someone’s bedtime is around that time, and Destructo is the king of delay (5 more minutes!), it’s unlikely we’ll see all of this live. But for you with children who go to bed or put themselves to bed or without kids, please participate and finally do something with this. It is possible.