Shaw Junior High School

Shaw Junior High School, now known as Asbury Dwellings, is an historic structure located in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It has been listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites and on the National Register of Historic Places since 2008.

History

From 1902 until 1928 the building housed the William McKinley Manual Training School. It was a school for white students and opened the same time as Armstrong Manual Training School for African Americans.^[2] They were part of an educational trend that began in the late 19th century of developing schools that taught industrial education along with the more traditional academic curriculum that prepared students for college. When McKinley moved to a larger campus in 1928 the building became Robert Gould Shaw Junior High School, which was for African Americans. The school was overcrowded from the very beginning. As it started to deteriorate the building was referred to as “Shameful Shaw.”^[2] It was illustrative of the city’s neglect of African Americans. The neighborhood became the Shaw Urban Renewal area in the 1960s. The building now houses apartments.

Architecture

The building was designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb. It is part of the city’s effort to hire private architects to improve the designs of public schools.^[2] The exterior is composed of buff colored brick and limestone trim. It features an arcade of Romanesque arches on the third floor.

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