Historian’s home primed for museum

A “No Trespassing” sign now hangs on the door of a dilapidated house that has been designated by Congress as a museum and tourist attraction.

Before the Thanksgiving recess, the Senate passed a bill making the Washington, D.C. home of famed black historian Carter G .Woodson a National Historic Site. Woodson, who lived and worked at the Victorian row house from 1922 until his death in 1950, is known as the father of both African American studies and Black History Month.

Only two other such National Park Service sites honor African Americans in this mostly black city: the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House in Northwest D.C. and the Frederick Douglass home, Cedar Hill, a popular tourist attraction in the city’s Southeast region.

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A movement to save Woodson’s house from going to ruin, with its leaky roof and peeling plaster, culminated this February with D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) sponsoring the bill that got congressional approval.

Woodson was the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in 1915. While now housed at Howard University, the organization’s administrators were worked out of Woodson’s home through 1971. One of the prime reasons for the move was that the association, which owns the house, had no money to make repairs.

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With the bill’s passage, the National Park Service will not only have the funds to buy and restore the home, but money to purchase three adjacent properties to assure the integrity of the site. The projected land acquisition cost is $1 million, while the renovation and development necessary will run about $2.9 million. The association will be allowed to use part of the three-story red brick house for administrative purposes. Getting the money appropriated for the project is the next congressional hurdle to be jumped, but Norton is confident because of the recent funding of an African American Museum as part of the Smithsonian Institution on the Mall.

“During much of Dr. Woodson’s life, there was widespread ignorance and very little information concerning African-American life and history,” Norton, told BET.com. “With his extensive studies, Woodson almost single-handedly established African-American historiography. Dr. Woodson’s research literally uncovered black history and helped to educate the American public about the contributions of African-Americans to the nation’s history and culture.”

Gloria Harper Dickinson, current president of the association, said the congressional designation would place Woodson and his contributions to American and African American history “into their proper context.”