Armstrong and Maybe the Homeopathic Hospital

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

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
Duke Ellington and unknown woman, Howard Theater(?), Washington, D.C., ca. June 1946, Library of Congress

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.
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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: 
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.  
—–
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.

Property Owners of Truxton- Addendum to the Bundys

Okay, James F. Bundy from my previous post was on the DC School Board. So the Bundy School and the Bundy playground was named after him.

I found an obituary for him from the Evening Star on the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America site. In December 14, 1914 he died at the age of 50 at Freedmens Hospital. One of his pallbearers was Judge Robert H. Terrell.

Although he was born in Virginia, he spent most of his life in Washington, DC. He did leave for Oberlin College in Ohio, but returned to attend Howard.

Not sure what his belief system was. He was listed as a trustee for the Baha’i Assembly of Washington. But he was a member of the Second Baptist Church in his obit.

In addition to have been on the DC School Board (1901-1907), he was the secretary of the Howard University Law faculty. He was an alumni graduating from Howard Law school in 1886. When I looked for him, I would find his name attached to public notices regarding wills and probate.

Somewhere in a university library is his biography, “James F. Bundy, 1862-1914” by Charles Murdah Thomas. His papers are at the Historical Society of Washington, DC.

Twinning School of Truxton Circle

This is from the pile of stuff I have on my computer about DC History and while reviewing Church Survey uploads that hadn’t a lot of views, I noticed this one. I got this from the Sumner School Archives, a great resource and it is from DCPS Public School Buildings Past and Present, which appears to be an unpublished manuscript.

The Twinning School used to be a school at 3rd and O Streets NW. It was an 8 room school house built in 1883 and demolished sometime around the time Dunbar expanded. When it served as a school it was a segregated white school. It appears that it served as a school for white students until 1918. It became a school for African American students in 1925. In 1930 the Truxton Circle neighborhood was predominately African-American. It soon got absorbed by Armstrong on the other end of the block and became an auxiliary building. Now there is an empty field where it stood.

Twining School by Mm Inshaw