Bethune, Mary McLeod, Council House (Nat'l Council of Negro Women)
- Year
- 1875
- Style
- Second Empire
- City
- Washington, DC
The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site preserves the Vermont Avenue townhouse where Bethune lived from 1943 to 1955, which she purchased for $15,500. Built in 1875, the three-story Victorian house and its two-story carriage house sit in the Logan Circle Historic District, half a block from Logan Circle itself.
the building
A shared household with NCNW. Bethune lived on the third floor while the National Council of Negro Women, which she led, occupied the first and second floors — the house doubled as her home and the organization's headquarters.
the style
The house was built in 1875 in the Second Empire style, one of the Victorian-era homes that make up the Logan Circle Historic District.
More on Second Empiresignificance
The site is a National Historic Site, a DC Historic Landmark, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The carriage house held the National Archives for Black Women's History until 2014, when the National Park Service moved the records to its Museum Resource Center in Landover, Maryland. Park Service rangers now give tours of the home.
nearby
- National City Christian Church
- United States Daughters of 1812 National Headquarters
- Grace Reformed Church, Sunday School, & Parish House
- Brodhead-Bell-Morton House (Levi P. Morton House)
- Saint Luke's Episcopal Church
- Church of the Ascension and Saint Agnes