• A park honoring DC’s legendary R&B artist Marvin Gaye • The hilltop where activist Nannie Helen Burroughs founded a landmark vocational school for young women • The site of DC’s only amusement park • Time-tested, handcrafted homes • The spot where the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., rallied for DC home rule • The storefront where Murry’s Family of Fine Foods got its start • The site of Washington’s “best-equipped” race track On this self-guided walking tour of Greater Deanwood, historical markers lead you to:
5 GREATER DEANWOOD HERITAGE TRAIL A Self-Reliant People
A Whirl on the Ferris Wheel
is the former Merritt Educational Center, which operated from to . However, if you were standing here in the sand s,in its place you would have seen exuberant crowds of fashionably dressed African Americans enjoying Suburban Gardens Amusement Park. e park was built in by architectural engineer Howard D. Wood- son, writer John H. Paynter, theater magnate Sherman H. Dudley, and other investors of the black-owned Universal Development and Loan Company. It was the rst and only amusement park within the District boundaries. Suburban Gardens park provided seven acres of recreational haven for the region’s African Americans who, due to racial segregation, were barred from white-owned amusement parks such as Maryland’s Glen Echo. e public ocked to Suburban Gardens by streetcar, commuter train, private automobile, and even on foot. e park was so popular that on one Monday in ,jostling crowds waiting to pay the -cent admis- sion fee actually 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. e park’s large dance pavilion presented both lesser-known musicians and well-known jazz artists such as Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. er entertain- ing African Americans for nearly two decades, the park closed its gates for good in . e U.S. government built temporary barracks for soldiers here in . Soon a er, the building served as Emma F.G. Merritt Elementary School, honoring the educator, civic leader, and former president of the local NAACP chapter. e current school building went up in .
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