LeDroit Park Neighborhood

The LeDroit Park neighborhood was founded in 1873 by Amzi Barber, a trustee of Howard University and local businessman. Barber named the neighborhood after his father-in-law, LeDroict Langdon, but dropped the “c” to make pronunciation easier. LeDroit Park was one of the District’s first suburbs, developed and marketed as a “romantic” neighborhood with streets named for the trees that lined them. Developers spent a large sum on flower beds and trees in order to attract high-profile professionals from the city. Originally a whites-only neighborhood with ornate gates and guards, the neighborhood was eventually integrated due to efforts by students from Howard University, who, in July of 1888, tore down the fences that separated the neighborhood in protest of its discriminating policies. By the 1940’s, LeDroit Park had become a neighborhood for black elite citizens, with many prominent DC figures residing there. Griffith Stadium, the home of the Washington Redskins and Washington Senators was also located in LeDroit Park until 1965, when Howard University Hospital was built on its former grounds. Le Droit Park includes Anna J. Cooper Circle, named for the education pioneer. The historic district includes the Mary Church Terrell House, a U.S. National Historic Landmark. The neighborhood was awarded a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. On October 17, 2015 the LeDroit Park Heritage Trail opened. Featuring 16 signs, the 90-minute walking tour chronicles the history of the neighbborhood and its residents. The Trail begins where Florida Avenue, 6th and T Streets, NW meet at the “gateway” to LeDroit Park.

Notable residents of LeDroit Park include: General William Birney, a Civil War Veteran who owned the stately mansion on Anna J. Cooper Circle at T & Second Street; Senator Edward Brooke, the first African-American to win a senate seat by popular vote and who was born in 1938 Third Street in 1919; Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, the first African-American to receive the Nobel Peace prize; General Benjamin O. Davis Sr., the first African-American general and father of Ben O. Davis Jr; commander of the World War II Tuskegee airmen; Hon. Oscar De Priest. the first Black Congressmen after reconstruction, who lived at 419 U Street; Paul Laurence Dunbar, the black poet laureate & Howard University alumnus who lived at 321 U Street; Duke Ellington, the jazz legend, who lived at 420 Elm Street during his early childhood; Major Christian Fleetwood, one of the first black persons to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Fleetwood lived at 319 U Street; Julia West Hamilton, a civic leader and member of N.A.C.W. lived at 320 U Street; Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition lived at the corner of Fourth & T Streets; Ernest Everett Just, a professor in biology and researcher in biogenetics with significant contributions to zoology and biogenetic lived at 412 T Street; Dr. Jesse Lawson and Dr. Anna J. Cooper, both prominent educators who founded Frelinghuysen University to educate black working-class adults (Lawson also was a lawyer – Howard University Law, 1881) who advocated for the rights of poor D.C. residents) resided at 201 T Street; Willis Richards, a prominent playwright credited with having the first serious play to be performed on Broadway lived at 512 U Street; Mary Church Terrell, heiress and activist for civil rights and woman’s suffrage lived at 326 T Street, a National Historic Landmark; Walter Washington, the first mayor of DC elected under home rule resided at 408 T Street; Clarence Cameron White, a prominent violinist and educator in fine arts (also a Howard U Alumni; Dr. Garnet C. Wilkinson, Superintendent of Colored Schools during segregation lived at 406 U Street; Octavius Augustus Williams, a U.S. Capitol barber and first black person to move into LeDroit Park in 1893 made his home at 338 U Street.