U Street: Black Broadway, Erased and Remembered
Four blocks in Northwest Washington were, between roughly nineteen hundred and nineteen sixty-eight, the cultural capital of Black America outside Harlem. Seven stops. One corridor's biography, read aloud, including what is currently happening on the same blocks.
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Howard University Main Gate: The Institution That Made the Corridor Possible
Howard University Main Gate: The Institution That Made the Corridor Possible
The Sixth Street and Howard Place gate to Howard University, chartered by Congress in 1867 and named for Oliver Otis Howard, the Civil War general and Freedmen's Bureau commissioner. The parent institution one block north of Black Broadway.
Howard Theatre: Built For Black Audiences, Not By Them
Six twenty T Street Northwest. Opened August 22, 1910, billed as the largest colored theatre in the world. Designed by J. Edward Storck for the white-owned National Amusement Company. The corridor's first major performance venue, but not its first Black-owned building.
True Reformer Building: Designed, Financed, Built, and Owned
Twelve hundred U Street Northwest. Dedicated July 15, 1903. Designed by John A. Lankford, commissioned by the Grand United Order of True Reformers. The first building in the United States designed, financed, built, and owned by African Americans after Reconstruction. Where Duke Ellington played his first paid gig in 1917 for seventy-five cents.
Lincoln Theatre: The Nineteen Twenties Peak and the Twenty-Six-Year Closure
Twelve fifteen U Street Northwest. Opened January 22, 1922. Designed by Reginald W. Geare in collaboration with Harry Crandall. The Lincoln Colonnade ballroom was the documented center of Black Broadway. Closed after the 1968 unrest, boarded up for years, restoration began 1989, reopened 1994.
Ben's Chili Bowl: The Building That Stayed Open
Twelve thirteen U Street Northwest. Founded August 22, 1958, by Mahaboob Ben Ali, Trinidadian-born of Indo-Trinidadian heritage, and Virginia Rollins. Stayed open past curfew during the 1968 unrest at the request of Stokely Carmichael, feeding both police and Black activists; Soul Brother written on the window. The corridor's living survivor of the inflection.
Eighteen Oh-Five Thirteenth Street Northwest: The Corridor's Most Famous Son
The rowhouse where Edward Kennedy Ellington lived between roughly 1910 and 1914 as a child. Marked by a Cultural Tourism DC African American Heritage Trail plaque. The corridor's biography passes through Ellington's biography at this address.
African American Civil War Memorial: The Corridor's Most Recent Witness
Vermont Avenue, Tenth Street, and U Street Northwest. Dedicated July 18, 1998. The central nine-foot bronze, The Spirit of Freedom, is by Ed Hamilton of Louisville, Kentucky. Honors approximately 209,145 African American USCT soldiers and other Union forces. Founded by Frank Smith. The corridor's most recent monumental anchor, and the closing beat for both frames.
Best Time to Visit
Weekday mid-morning, Tuesday through Friday, nine to noon. U Street fills with restaurant and bar crowds from late afternoon onward; weekend evenings on the Lincoln Theatre and Ben's Chili Bowl block can be very loud, and the audio gets lost in the music spilling out of Twelfth and U bars. The Howard Theatre and Lincoln Theatre are active concert venues; if a show is loading in or out, the Seventh and T and Twelfth and U sidewalks can be crowded. Ben's Chili Bowl is busiest at lunch and late at night. The African American Civil War Memorial is a quiet plaza; mornings are best for sitting at the Wall of Honor. Howard University's main gate is most contemplative when classes are between sessions; the late-spring graduation week is festive but loud.
Pro Tips
- •Start at the Howard University main gate at Sixth and Howard Place. The Shaw-Howard University Metro station on the Yellow and Green lines is one block south on Seventh and R; walk north on Sixth Street to the gate piers
- •The corridor's signature drink is the Ben's Chili Bowl half-smoke, a quarter-pound half-pork half-beef smoked sausage on a steamed bun with chili. The Stop Five audio holds on the storefront; the half-smoke decision is yours on site
- •The True Reformer Building's painted Duke Ellington mural is on the south wall, facing Twelfth Street. From the Stop Three sidewalk on U Street, walk a few steps south on Twelfth to see the full portrait. The two thousand and nineteen restoration by G. Byron Peck is the version visible today
- •The Lincoln Theatre interior is a separate ticketed visit when a show is running. The audio anchors on the marquee outside; you do not need to enter to complete the stop
- •The Howard Theatre interior is also a ticketed visit and depends on the night's programming. The Stop Two audio anchors on the restored facade and the sidewalk historical marker
- •Blair Ruble's twenty ten book Washington's U Street: A Biography is the canonical scholarly source if you want to read forward from the tour. Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove's twenty seventeen Chocolate City is the canonical wider-DC source
- •The U Street Metro station is one block east of the Stop Seven Memorial plaza. If you are continuing north or south along the Green or Yellow line, this is the closest entry point
- •The Cultural Tourism DC African American Heritage Trail markers are physical bronze plaques set into the sidewalk at most stops; pause to read each one. The marker text is a separate institutional record that complements this audio
Safety & Precautions
- U Street has cobble crosswalk inlays and active streetcar and traffic lanes at Fourteenth and U. Cross only at signals; the corridor's central intersection is busy at all hours
- The Stop Five to Stop Six walking leg is the longest single leg of the tour, about five hundred meters south on Twelfth, east on T, south on Thirteenth. Watch traffic on Thirteenth Street, which carries fast through-traffic
- Eighteen oh-five Thirteenth Street Northwest is a private residence. Stay on the public sidewalk on the opposite side of the street; do not approach the door or photograph the windows
- The Howard University main gate and the True Reformer Building lobby may be accessible during business hours, but the audio describes both from the public sidewalk; respect any posted security or private-event signage
- Ben's Chili Bowl, Lincoln Theatre, and the Howard Theatre are working institutions. Watch for loading zones, ticket-holder queues, and active concert load-in vehicles, particularly on Friday and Saturday evenings
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