Blanche Kelso Bruce Elementary School
- Architect
- Albert L. Harris
- Year
- 1916
- Style
- Renaissance Revival
- City
- Washington, DC
Named in 1898 for Blanche Kelso Bruce, the Bruce School was built as an all-Black school and community center during the Jim Crow era, designed in Renaissance Revival style with red brick, stone, and pressed-metal trim. Architect Albert L. Harris added a Colonial Revival eight-room annex in 1927. The school closed in 1973, later reopened in 2009 as the charter Caesar Chavez Prep Middle School, and closed again in 2019 after its teachers unionized.
the style
The original building was Renaissance Revival brick with stone and metal trim; Harris's 1927 annex shifted to Colonial Revival, giving the complex two distinct period styles side by side.
More on Renaissance Revivalthe architect
Albert L. Harris designed the 1927 Colonial Revival annex to the Bruce School; the original 1898 building was the work of architect William M. Poindexter.
significance
Designated a D.C. historic site in 2014 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015, commemorating its history as a Black school and community center under segregation.
nearby
- James Ormond Wilson Normal School
- Tivoli Theatre
- Park View School
- Kelsey Temple Church of God in Christ
- Banneker Recreation Center
- Normal School for Colored Girls