Western High School (Duke Ellington School of the Arts)
- Year
- 1974
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- the city beautiful
The Duke Ellington School of the Arts, established in 1974, occupies the former Western High School building at 35th and R Streets in Georgetown. Named for jazz composer and DC native Duke Ellington, it is dedicated to arts education within the DC Public Schools system. The school grew out of Workshops for Careers in the Arts, founded in 1968 by DC School Board member Peggy Cooper Cafritz and Broadway veteran Mike Malone.
the building
Audition-based tracks. Alongside a standard college-prep curriculum, students audition into one of eight artistic tracks: cinematic arts and media production, dance, museum studies, instrumental music, vocal music, theater, technical design and production, or visual arts.
the style
The former Western High School building is designed in the Neoclassical style, a common idiom for Washington's early-twentieth-century public schools.
More on Neoclassicalsignificance
The building is individually listed as a DC Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places under its original name, Western High School.
nearby
- Volta Bureau
- Tudor Place
- Georgetown University, Old North
- Georgetown University, Healy Hall
- Lauinger Library
- Saint John's Church, Georgetown