An exhibition about architect Adolf Cluss, education in DC, and the Historic Franklin School located at 13th & K Streets, NW has opened in a community gallery at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. on Sunday, July 18, and continues through September 26, 2010. The official opening event is scheduled for Wednesday, July 28, from 12–2 pm.
The exhibition was organized by the Coalition for Franklin School. The Franklin School opened at 13th and K Streets NW in 1869, and played an important role in the educational revolution of the post-Civil War period in the nation’s capital.
The Franklin School, the Charles Sumner School, and other schools designed by Adolf Cluss transformed the city’s public educational system and put the District of Columbia on the international map as a home to model public schools for the nation. Franklin School is the work of Adolf Cluss, the District’s signature nineteenth-century architect, whose Eastern Market and Sumner School are among the District’s most cherished public buildings. Opened in 1869, Franklin pioneered new programs for District schools, including a teacher education school (housed at Franklin for forty years), Washington’s first public high school classes, and successful adult education programs.
“The Franklin School is a prominent but gravely endangered national historic landmark that should be put back to use”, says Terry Lynch, Executive Director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. “This was a model building for public school education when it was built in the 1800’s; it served as a site for Alexander Graham Bell experiments. Given its central location near Metro Center, it is time to put it back to use as a magnet academic public high school like School Without Walls, or as a neighborhood high school for Ward 2. Every day it sits empty it deteriorates even more and can be lost to fire, weather, and neglect”, he says.
The Museum is open from 10am to 5pm, Tuesday through Sunday. There is no admission fee.
