Washington D.C.'s Deanwood, The Deanwood History Committee, DC History Center
Located in the far northeastern edge of the city, Deanwood is one of Washington, D.C.'s oldest, consistently African American neighborhoods. Rooted in slave-based agriculture on white-owned land, the community began its transition from rural to urban development with the 1871 arrival of a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad along its western boundary. This period after the Civil War offered blacks the opportunity to become landowners. Since this time, many notable Washingtonians of various ethnicities have been residents and frequent visitors to the area. In the early 1920s, it was home to Suburban Gardens, the only permanent amusement park ever to be housed within the city limits. Many of Deanwood's families have lived in the community for generations, which makes it stable and close-knit.
This book functions as a social history of 26 of D.C.'s vibrant, diverse neighborhoods and communities. For specific information about Deanwood, see Ruth Ann Overbeck and Kia Chatmon, "Deanwood: Self-Reliance at the Eastern Point."
A Self - Reliant People: Greater Deanwood Heritage Trail
Created by Cultural Tourism DC, 15 poster-sized street signs combine storytelling with historic photographs to transport the reader back to Deanwood on a 90-minute, self-guided tour. D.C. History Center holds a printed brochure with this neighborhood's vast history from 2009.
Deanwood 1880-1950, A Model of Self-Sufficiency in Far Northeast Washington, D.C.
While Deanwood is one of Washington, D.C.'s oldest African American suburbs today, it was originally established in 1833 when white landowner and enslaver, Levi Sheriff, purchased several hundred acres in the area. When Sheriff died in 1853, his land was divided amongst his three daughters: Margaret Sheriff Lowrie, Emmeline Sheriff, and Mary Cornelia Sheriff Dean. In 1871, the three daughters established subdivisions originally called Whittingham, Lincoln Heights, and Burrville; however, 20 years later Levi Sherriff's grandson, Julian Dean, added 20 houses in his subdivision on the land, naming it Deanewood--the E was eventually dropped.
Dean House. DC History Center.
This house, located at 4421 Jay Street NE, was built some time before 1878 for Julian Deane, the grandson of Levi Sheriff, the patriarch of what would become the Dean family generations after his death (the "E" was consistently added to Dean after 1888). In 1981, the once rural home was converted into a church.
Map of Wymer Area, John P. Waymer Photograph Collection, DC History Center, 1948-1952.
Among about 4000 images of Washington, D.C. that Wymer took between 1948 and 1952 is his description of Deanwood, which he described as "an older section of the city. Though many of the houses in the area are attractive and modern, the district has the usual characteristics of a Negro neighborhood in the outlying sections of Washington, such as a lack of adequate shopping facilities and a poorly planned and a poorly paved street system."
National Training School for Women and Girls, DC History Center.
Founded by religious leader, educator and activist, Nannie Helen Burroughs, in 1909. The school opened with 35 students. Burroughs stressed the three B's—Bible, bath, and broom. Students were given lessons on Godliness, physical cleanliness, and housekeeping. They were also trained in domestic science, business and sewing, printing, barbering, and shoe repair. In 1964, the school trustees decided to switch from a vocational curriculum and created Nannie Helen Burroughs School which taught students preschool through sith grade. The building is now the headquarters to the Progressive National Baptist Convention. The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
This volume not only provides a critical understanding of the role African Americans have played in the architecture field, but also highlights several Black Washingtonians and their enduring work, along with photographs of each architect. This dictionary also includes architects, architectural historians, historic preservation specialists, and notably, a building list that shows the name, address, and date of his or her known or attributed work. The appendix also sorts these by state and city.
William Sidney Pittman Documentary, Humanities DC, 2002.
“This documentary surveys the life of noted African-American architect, William Sidney Pittman. Pittman began his career at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, but moved to Washington, DC to open his private firm. Pittman designed several notable buildings in the Deanwood Neighborhood including the Zion Baptist Church and the neighboring Deanwood Chess House.”
This report from 1987 details how Black businesses were the crux of community economic development in Deanwood: "Between 1907 and 1945, Deanwood had a wide variety and number of small businesses owned and operated by black persons. About a dozen types of businesses were reported. These included small groceries, pharmacies, coal and ice services, a shoe repair, eating and food services, a combined real estate and grocery, funeral parlors, a materials transport business and bus service, cleaners and an oil company. In addition, large scale and small scale building and building related crafts were carried out commercially … Crafts such as electrical, plumbing, cement finishing and stone making were typically carried out as both a business and as community activity."
Faith and Foundation Historic Church Tour of Deanwood (Deanwood Heights Main Streets (DHMS): Deanwood Churches - Faith and Foundation Historic Tour 2011
This tour, published in 2011, was created by the Deanwood Heights Main Streets, an organization that "exists to help small, independent businesses continue, strengthen, and possibly expand their business and presence in the Deanwood business district." This tour highlights spaces of worship, community, and economic development in historic Deanwood with brief histories about major sites.
1968-2018 Small Businesses of Historic Deanwood: A Look Back, Humanities DC, 2018.
"Small businesses have continuously uplifted the historically black community of Deanwood. Alice Chandler and Deborah Jones detail the rich history of small black and Jewish-owned businesses in Deanwood after 1968, a year of sociopolitical upheaval due to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Tracking both changes and consistencies from the late sixties until 2018, personal accounts through oral history and photography are used to validate the research presented."
Mapping Segregation DC. Prologue DC.
This site seeks to examine the role race played in shaping Washington, D.C. during the beginning of the twentieth century. The website hosts several interactive resources, including: From Restrictive Covenants to Racial Steering, a special exhibit on the fight for fair housing; Covenants Map, an interactive map tracing housing covenants 1940-1970; 11 different story maps, including ones on segregated schools, segregated playgrounds, segregated public housing, historic black communities, and displacement; a gallery of historic maps and real estate ads; and additional resources.
Deanwood & Mayfair, African American Heritage Trail (Cultural Tourism DC)
This contains several points of interest in this DC neighborhood related to the histories of African Americans, including the residences of several noted African American architects, schools, former amusement park sites, and more.
The author ultimately finds that "as the nation’s food system became more industrialized and usurped by the market economy, residents became more dependent on supermarkets, unknowingly contributing to the destabilization of Deanwood’s local foodscape. Without the local food practices upon which Deanwood’s food security was partially based, the neighborhood’s food access was at the mercy of the increasingly transnational food corporations that systematically left Black neighborhoods in favor of the suburbs."
Deanwood, DC Neighborhoods, WETA PBS, 2023.
As part of WETA's house-hunting "If You Lived Here" series, this video spotlighting Deanwood sheds light on the neighborhood's diverse collection of houses on large lots, numerous green spaces and recreation opportunities, easy access to highways, and Lederer Gardens, a communal garden designed to fight food insecurity.
Men of Change: Taking it to the Streets, Anacostia Community Museum, 2021.
Men of Change: Taking it to the Streets presents a nation’s story through the profiles of revolutionary African American men and the cultural stories they illuminate. Formerly slated to open in its gallery, the exhibition has been creatively reimaged for outdoor installation in the District of Columbia’s Ward 7 Deanwood neighborhood to be accessible to the community as a safer response to Covid-19.
In partnership with the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, Groundwork Anacostia, and Habitat for Humanity of Washington, D.C., the Empowerhouse in Deanwood is meant to be an educational tool for the greater Deanwood community and an example of the area's revitalization. It's a community-based approach to building affordable, site net-zero housing that addresses all aspects of domestic life.
As part of WETA's house-hunting "If You Lived Here" series, this video spotlighting Deanwood sheds light on the neighborhood's diverse collection of houses on large lots, numerous green spaces and recreation opportunities, easy access to highways, and Lederer Gardens, a communal garden designed to fight food insecurity.
Suburban Gardens was not only Washington, D.C.'s only amusement park, it was also Black-owned and encompassed 20 acres before its eventual closure in 1940. Suburban Gardens included a roller coaster, airplane swing, Tilt-a-Whirl, See-Ball, miniature railway, shooting gallery, and swimming pool.
"In the early twenty-first century, as Washington, DC was experiencing rapid population growth, mounting tensions over gentrification, and persistent inequality, the Anacostia Community Museum's 'A Right to the City' exhibition explored the history of neighborhood change and civic activism in the nation's capital." In this audio interview, an interviewee discusses her life in Anacostia, but highlights her adolescence in Deanwood.
Deanwood Oral History Project - A Self Reliant People, Humanities DC, 2011.
Youth residents interview seniors in the Deanwood neighborhood; these oral history interviews were transcribed and featured in a documentary film. The narrators discussed their childhood, career, family life, and church activities. Several of the narrators were native Washingtonians, and several arrived in the city in the early to mid 20th century. They contrast the environment in which they grew up with the one they see today.
The Strand Theater, DC History Center.
This theater originally opened in 1928 and was the first motion picture theater constructed east of the Anacostia River for African American patrons. For more than 40 years, the Strand was a center of community social life, reinforcing the self-sufficiency of the historically African American Deanwood neighborhood. It has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, but there are plans for re-developing the historic theater.
First Baptist Church of Deanwood, DC History Center.
Originally completed in 1938, the First Baptist Church of Deanwood is the most prominent building in the center of the Deanwood community. DCHC has a pictorial journal of this important community's history in its collections. The First Baptist Church of Deanwood was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
Ruth Ann Overbeck Papers & Washington Perspectives, Inc. Records, The George Washington University.
"Ruth Ann Overbeck founded Washington Perspectives, Inc. (W.P.I.) in 1975. The purpose of the organization as stated in the articles of incorporation was 'to conduct research, plan, and implement various cultural, historical, social and education programs, including, but not limited to, conducting guided tours, preparing historical and other reports, and to carry out any other activities within the general scope of the above.' She wrote numerous articles and worked on many reports for the D.C. government and community agencies. She conducted numerous walking tours of D.C., founded the preservation trust, a façade easement trust, and served on many boards including Friendship House Association, Inc. and Capitol Hill Restoration Society. One of her final acts as an historian was to be interviewed for an oral history project about her experiences researching, working, and living in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Ruth Ann had planned to write a book about Capitol Hill, but did not have the opportunity. The oral history project was her way to record her vast knowledge of Capitol Hill and Washington D.C. history and make it accessible to researchers."
See chapter five "'Don't Mess With Jim'-Crow, that is: Twentieth Century Leisure Spaces" on the Suburban Gardens, the first and only major amusement park within D.C.--opened in 1921 and closed in 1940--created for African Americans excluded by whites from Glen Echo Amusement Park in Maryland.
Washington at Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation's Capitol by Kathryn Schneider Smith. Washington, D.C.: Columbia Historical Society, 1988. F194 .W34 1988
Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C. Ashanté M. Reese. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019.
Historically African American Leisure Destinations Around Washington, D.C. by Patsy Mose Fletcher. Charleston: The History Press, 2015. GV54.D5 F54 2015