LeDroit Park was developed in the 1870s as an exclusive whites-only suburb just north of Howard University. By the early 20th century it had become one of DC’s most prestigious addresses for the city’s Black professional class.
LeDroit Park began in 1873 as a fenced whites-only suburb dropped on Howard University’s doorstep. By 1888 the fence was on the ground. By 1920 Mary Church Terrell, Anna J. Cooper, and Paul Laurence Dunbar all kept addresses there.
The Dunbar Hotel at the corner of 15th and U Streets NW was Washington’s premier Black-owned hotel from 1945 to 1974, where Duke Ellington stayed when he came home to play. Before that it was the Portner Flats, a brewer’s luxury apartment house built in 1902.
Truxton Circle lost its namesake traffic roundabout in 1947, but the story of how it got that name reaches back to the founding of the U.S. Navy and Commodore Thomas Truxtun, one of the most celebrated officers of the early republic.
Take a look at the unfortunate demolition of the ugly, brutalist, Soviet-looking Dunbar High School built in the 1970s. Here’s an article we dug up from the Washington Post, printed on April 13th, 1977.
Discover the 1907 Baist Real Estate Map of Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park. See how the area has changed over the years and explore popular establishments like Big Bear Cafe, Rustik, and Boundary Stone.
