The Historic Stevens Coalition
The Stevens School was the first school built in Washington for freed slaves after the Civil War, and was named a national historical site in 2001 by the National Park Service. It currently serves more than 300 students and is housed in a yellow brick building at the corner of 21st and K streets in northwest Washington.
There is strong community support for Stevens as a living landmark and a legacy the city should treasure. The purpose of the webpage was to create a portal for all information available on this subject, and provide a voice in support for keeping the Stevens Elementary School intact and untouched for future generations of Washingtonians.
Stevens Elementary School is currently
in danger of closing it’s doors forever…
Neighbors, Council Pan Fenty plan for Apartments at Historic School
By Bill Myers | October 8, 2009
WASH DC — Mayor Adrian Fenty’s plan to convert a historic D.C. school for freed slaves into a luxury apartment building has run into fierce opposition from neighbors in Foggy Bottom and D.C. Council members.
Asher Corson, a neighborhood commissioner and president of the Foggy Bottom Association, is leading the opposition against a move to convert the historic Stevens School in Northwest D.C. into apartments.
In late September, Fenty awarded a contract to Equity Residential so that the Chicago-based firm could convert the Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School into an apartment building. Many neighbors in Foggy Bottom — many of them already angry that Fenty closed Stevens — have erupted.
“We have high expectations and we want to see a signature project there,” Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Rebecca Coder said.
“Rental units don’t cut it.”
Coder and her friends have elicited promises to kill the Equity contract from three D.C. councilmen on the five-member economic development committee. read full article»
West End Neighbors to Developer:
‘Uh, You Can Leave Now’
by Ruth Samuelson | October 8, 2009, 9:33 am
Oh the gall! The sheer impudence of it all!
This is just a funny little tidbit I read this morning. As I blogged in late September, West End neighbors are in an uproar over the city’s selection of developer Equity Residential to transform the Stevens School downtown.
The locals wants the building redeveloped into something extra special to reflect the fact that Stevens, with its amazing history and location, is deserving of more than just the usual classrooms-to-bedrooms treatment.
Equity Residential has proposed apartment living. Boo! BooooOOOOoooOOOooo! say the locals, who are pushing for a hotel.
And one West End leader, ANC commissioner Asher Corson—who also happens to be Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh’s spokesperson—took it upon himself to essentially dismiss the developer, despite the fact that the company had already been awarded the contract, according to the Washington Examiner. I’ve never heard of any neighborhood leader offering such a confident ‘adieu!’
[Corson] sent a letter to Equity executive Greg White Monday night urging him to bow out gracefully.
“The deal is dead,” Corson told The Examiner. “At this point, there’s nothing left to talk about. Hopefully, this will give the city and Equity an out.”…
read full article»
Equity Residential/Neighborhood Development Group’s plan
D.C. picks Equity Residential to develop Stevens Elementary School
By Jonathan O’Connell | September 22, 2009
A development team led by Equity Residential has been chosen by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty to develop the historic Stevens Elementary School, according to multiple sources.
The choice conflicted with the preference of community groups, prompting Councilman Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, to try to get Fenty to reconsider.
According to sources, Fenty’s economic development team, led by Deputy Mayor Valerie Santos, selected Equity Residential team to develop Stevens from a group of three finalists. Equity partnered with D.C.-based Neighborhood Development Co. and Hickok Cole Architects and plans to develop the school into multifamily housing.
Community groups preferred a plan by the Peebles Corp. of Florida to turn the building into a luxury hotel by the Morgans Hotel Group Co.
A neighborhood leader, Asher Corson, said the selection of Chicago-based Equity Residential was “completely baffling” and “100 percent anti-community development.”
“This is the worst-case scenario,” said Corson, who is an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in the area and president of the Foggy Bottom Association. Both the ANC and the neighborhood group backed the Peebles bid. “This is literally the worst possible result.”… read full article»
Developers, Charter Schools Interested in Vacant D.C. Schools
By Jonathan O’Connell | January 12, 2009
Despite the real estate slowdown, D.C. seems to be attracting interest in some of its vacant school buildings, but members of the D.C. Council aren’t so enthused.
More than 150 people crowded into a “pre-bidder” meeting Jan. 9 to hear details on 11 former D.C. school buildings that city wants to put to new use in partnership with private developers. In the crowd were representatives from a bevy of developers, including Donohoe Development Co., Four Points LLC, PN Hoffman Inc. and William C. Smith & Co. The meeting also attracted charter schools looking for new space, including some that asked for room in empty schools last fall. read full article»
by Harald Olsen Hatchet Staff Writer | December 10, 2008
Among the hundreds of protests and political rallies that take place in Washington regularly, the march to keep the Stevens Elementary School open ranks as one of the smallest. But what it lacked in numbers, it made up for in energy.
Foggy Bottom children, teachers, parents and GW students marched Monday night to a meeting with school officials at St. Francis Junior High School to protest the planned closure of their building. The largely empty streets of the business district rang out with cries of “Keep Stevens open!” read full article»
Big Gains Made, but Most Still Struggle to Meet Benchmarks
by Mary Lord and Laura McGiffert Slover | August 2008
If every cloud has its silver lining, then the stunning gains on the latest DC Comprehensive Assessment System test – or DC-CAS – are pure Tiffany in the District of Columbia, the nation’s lowest performing “state.”
The nation’s lowest performing “state.” The test, required by the Federal No Child Left Behind Act, was first administered in the spring of 2006. It seeks to measure how well students in grades three through eight, as well as high school sophomores, have mastered the core concepts in English and mathematics that they are expected to learn each year.
Between the spring of 2007 and 2008, the percentage of pupils in both public and public charter schools that performed at or above grade level in reading and math increased significantly at both the elementary and secondary levels. The percentage scoring proficient or above in math jumped an average of 10 percent. Average reading scores improved 7.3 percent. As the State Board of Education heard at its July 16 meeting, these are the biggest gains DC has seen in many, many years. read full article»
Preservation League Releases Endangered Historic properties List
by Tierney Plumb Staff Reporter | May 14, 2008
The D.C. Preservation League announced its list of the 10 most endangered historic properties and places in D.C. on Tuesday.
The annual list, compiled by the nonprofit since 1996, names at-risk infrastructure in the city’s historical transportation, education and housing systems.
The D.C. Public School Buildings collectively made the list, reflecting last year’s announcement by the Mayor and the new Chancellor of Public Schools, Michelle Rhee, that several would close. Of the 165 public school buildings, 86 are eligible for listing on the DC Inventory of Historic Sites, but only 21 have so far been acknowledged.
The site of the DCPL announcement was at Stevens Elementary School at 1050 21st St. NW, one of the schools closing its doors this June.
read full article»
The Washington Post | Saturday, May 10
In his recently released book, “Becton: Autobiography of a Soldier and Public Servant,” retired Army Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton Jr. delves into his tumultuous tenure as chief executive of D.C. public schools in the late 1990s. Chapter 19, “My Toughest Challenge,” should be read by anyone interested in a firsthand account of life in a D.C. school system firestorm.
I have, however, a quibble with the book.
Becton’s discussion of his attempt to close schools includes a reference to yours truly being “devastated” by the thought that Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School at 21st and L streets NW was on Becton’s hit list.
Devastated is a bit strong; bent out of shape is more accurate.
Stevens, as Becton noted, was the first school built in Washington for freed slaves after the Civil War.
Becton got it slightly wrong when he wrote that my grandparents, parents, siblings and I had attended Stevens. All of the King family members except my grandparents are Stevens alumni.
read full article»
by Harald Olsen Hatchet Staff Writer | April 28, 2008
The Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools visited Stevens Elementary School Wednesday night to relieve concerns over the impending closure of the 140-year-old Foggy Bottom school.
Amid a tense atmosphere, Chancellor Michelle Rhee explained that the closure of Stevens — first opened as a school for freed slaves — was in the best interest of D.C. students.
“My job is to make sure every single child in this city is getting an excellent education,” Rhee said.
Many parents said they see the school’s closure as result of its prime location on K Street, and questioned the benefits of moving Stevens’ students to a new school. Stevens is one of 22 schools in the District that will be closed next year to save the city $23.7 million.
read full article»
Foggy Bottom News | February 13, 2008
February is Black History Month, and the Stevens School—a living landmark in our very own ‘backyard’—has been overlooked. Located at 24th and L Street NW, it was built in 1886, (40 years before Black History was coined), and named after Senator Thaddeus Stevens, an abolitionist and U.S. representative. It was the first school for freed slaves in the District and the only such operating school in America.
For the moment, Stevens represents what public schools in the U.S. aspire to be: a tight knit community of parents, teachers, and neighbors that support the education, safety, and well being of its 231 elementary students. read full article»
Who was Thaddeus Stevens, for whom this landmark school is named?
Thaddeus Stevens (Apr 4, 1792 – Aug 11, 1868), of Pennsylvania, was a Republican leader and one of the most powerful members of the United States House of Representatives. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, a witty, sarcastic speaker and aggressive party leader, Stevens dominated the House from 1861 until his death and wrote much of the financial legislation that paid for the American Civil War. Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner were the prime leaders of the Radical Republicans during the American Civil War and Reconstruction. A biographer characterizes him as, “The Great Commoner, savior of free public education in Pennsylvania, national Republican leader in the struggles against slavery in the United States and intrepid mainstay of the attempt to secure racial justice for the freedmen during Reconstruction, the only member of the House of Representatives ever to have been known, even if mistakenly, as the ‘dictator’ of Congress.”
One of the bigger projects currently on deck with the city government is the redevelopment of several “excess” schools, closed due to recent budget shortfalls and threadbare facilities. One of the schools on this list is the Stevens Elementary School. The Stevens school site will not be put to it’s former use, and any plan for it’s future use will be considered, provided it exhibits a “creative vision for development or reuse” and has “an understanding of it’s neighborhood context.” A pre-bid conference was held January 9th and proposals for the redevelopment of this facilitie are due February 27th.
What do noted physician Charles R. Drew, Grammy award winner Roberta Flack, First daughter Amy Carter, Baltimore Ravens football player Jonathan Ogden and Pulitzer Prize winner Colby King have in common? They are alums of 136-year-old Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School, the first African-American publicly funded school in Washington D.C.
Links to additional information
1. West End Community Visioning Report»
2. A letter of support from Roberta Flack»
3. Letter to the Congressional Black Caucus»
4. Advisory Neighborhood Commission Report»
