Cultural Tourism DC - African American Heritage Trail

AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE
TRAIL DATABASE

John A. Wilson Building/District Building

Location: 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

The John A. Wilson Building, popularly known as the District Building from its construction in 1904-1908 until it was renamed in 1994, houses the offices of the District of Columbia mayor and the City Council. It is named to honor John A. Wilson, former chair of the City Council and council member of Ward 2 for 12 years. Designed in classical style of white marble, the building provided office space for the three presidentially appointed commissioners who ran the city government until 1967, and then for the appointed and elected DC City Council and mayors. In 1995 the DC City Council gave a real estate developer authority to negotiate a 20-year lease with the federal government to take over nearly two-thirds of the building because the city could not afford to repair it. In 1999 the mayor and City Council persuaded the U.S. government to allow the city to take the building back as the headquarters for the mayor and the City Council.

The Federation of Civic Associations, the umbrella organization for the separate black neighborhood associations, held meetings there during the segregation era.

Sources:

Pamela Scott and Antoinette J. Lee, Buildings of the District of Columbia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 170-171.

Vanessa Williams, “D.C. Government Reclaims City Hall; EPA Giving up Stake in Wilson Building,” Washington Post, Nov. 11, 1999.

View other historic sites in Downtown
American Colonization Society Hall Site Asbury United Methodist Church Civil War to Civil Rights: Downtown Heritage Trail D.C. Statehood Party Headquarters/Julius Hobson/Josephine Butler DC Superior Court/Old City Hall Epicurean Eating House/Snow Riot Site Franklin Square/Emancipation Day Parade Freedman's Savings and Trust Company Site Morton's Department Store Site	Freedom Riders Movement/Old Greyhound Bus Station National Archives/Center Market Site National Council of Negro Women, Inc. Headquarters National Theatre Recorder of Deeds Building Terrell Place/ Hecht Company Site Thompson's Restaurant Site Washington Bee Newspaper Office Site/W. Calvin Chase Washington Jail Site Wormley's Hotel Site

Search the African American Heritage Trail Database

To select more than one criterion, hold down the "control" key.

by keyword:

by neighborhood:

by topic:

To search all of Cutural Tourism DC's attractions, click here. You will exit the African American Heritage Trail Database.