LaVern Baker performed frequently at the Howard Theatre.
Crowds gather at the Howard Theatre, around 1940.
After the Civil War streetcars carried crowds to Schuetzen Park, an amusement park and beer garden north of Howard University built by German Americans. In 1891 baseball fans began streaming into Howardtown’s Nationals Park. Griffith Stadium took over the spot, hosting sporting events, high school cadet drill teams, mass baptisms, concerts, and more. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, zoning laws closed the amusement park, and rowhouses took over the site. New housing and businesses replaced Howardtown and Cowtown. African Americans outnumbered, but did not entirely replace, white residents. As Howard University became the national cen- ter for African American scholarship, the 1910 opening of the Howard Theatre made Seventh and T a black cultural mecca as well — long before U Street became Washington’s “Black Broadway.” Here young Duke Ellington worked after school as a soda jerk, and was inspired to compose his first music.
Cecelia Scott, right, with husband James Scott, right rear, and patrons in her restaurant across from the Howard Theatre, 1958.
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