Students gather at Main Hall and Administration Building, one of Howard University’s first buildings, around 1870.
During and after the Civil War (1861-1865) thousands of formerly enslaved people arrived in Washington, ready for new lives. They needed work, education, shelter, and medical care. To train leaders for this rapidly growing community, Howard University opened in 1867. Freedmen’s Hospital, founded by the U.S. government, soon moved near Howard and became its teaching hospital.
Officers of the Second Police Precinct kept order in boisterous Cowtown, 1878.
Nestled around the university and hospital was Howardtown, an area of small wood-frame houses that grew out of a wartime settlement of formerly enslaved people. Across Georgia Avenue was Cowtown, originally a community of German and Irish immigrants. Farm animals roamed freely in this area, and slaughterhouses and saloons operated along the turnpike.
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting