A Whirl On the Ferris Wheel 49TH & HAYES STREETS NE The complex of Buildings on Hayes Street is the former Merritt Educational Center, which operated from 1943 to 2008. However if you were standing here in the 1920s and 1930s, in its place you would have seen exuberant crowds of fashion- ably dressed African Americans enjoying Suburban Gardens Amusement Park. The seven-acre park was built in 1921 by architec- tural engineer Howard D. Woodson, writer John H. Paynter, theater magnate Sherman H. Dudley, and other investors of the black-owned Universal Development and Loan Company. It was the first and only amusement park within the District boundaries, providing a recreational haven for people who, due to racial segregation, were barred from white-owned amusement parks such as Maryland’s Glen Echo. Visitors arrived by streetcar, commuter train, private automobile, and on foot. The park was so popular that on one Monday in 1921, jostling crowds waiting to pay the 10-cent admission fee knocked down the gate. Park-goers enjoyed the Deep Dipper roller coaster, Ferris wheel, aero- swing, swimming pool, games of chance, picnic grounds, and children’s playground. The park’s large dance pavilion presented both lesser-known musicians and well-known jazz artists such as Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. After nearly two decades of operation, the parked closed its gates for good in 1940. The U.S. government built temporary barracks for soldiers here in 1943. Soon after, the building served as Emma F.G. Merritt Elementary School, honoring the educator, civic leader, and former president of the local NAACP chapter. The current school building went up in 1976.
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