Rowhouses on 13th Street NW
Paul K. Williams
“
Black Broadway.” Evenings and weekends, U Street was the place to be, especially Easter Sunday and Halloween, when it became a parade ground. On Sundays the community gathered in scores of churches, where generations had worshipped in congregations that dated back to the Civil War. Many of the buildings that provided the setting for the grand balls, civil rights gatherings, religious services, and business affairs of this community were financed, designed and built by and for African Americans, an extraordinary phenom- enon in the early 20 th century. Four major black architects — W. Sidney Pittman, Isaiah T. Hatton, John A. Lankford, and Charles I. Cassell — worked in this area. Their achievements can be seen in the structures that housed the nation’s first African American YMCA; the city’s oldest black bank; the earliest first-class African American hotel in Washington; a historic Masonic lodge; and a business, civic, and social center built by the Order of True Reformers. All have been restored to their original grandeur, as has the Lincoln Theatre, touted by the Washington Bee upon its opening in 1923 as “perhaps the finest and larg- est theater for Colored people in the world.”
Made with FlippingBook Annual report maker