Learn more about the compelling African American history of Lafayette Square

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AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY
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Lafayette Square—known first as President’s Park—is a landscape with a
rich and varied African American history. African Americans have important connections to the most prominent sites of the Square, such as St. John’s Church, Decatur House, and the White House, as well as its now disappeared structures such as the Freedman’s Bank and Belasco Theater.

African Americans were a part of the history of Lafayette Square from the very beginning, when enslaved workers constructed the White House. As Lafayette Square became a residential neighborhood, the architecture of urban enslavement and a personal drama linked to the national debate over slavery also became a part of its landscape. Buildings that served as both working and living quarters for people enslaved in the Square’s households, including kitchens, laundries, barns, and stables, were constructed behind the residences that faced the Square and were linked by cobblestone alleys.

Although modified on the interior, one structure remains on the Square today that is representative of this lost architecture—a two-story stucco building attached to the rear façade of Decatur House, extending along H Street. Built ca. 1839 by John Gadsby, the building was originally free-standing and the first floor is believed to have served as a kitchen, a laundry, and dining area for the enslaved members of the household, while the second floor served as living quarters for the slaves. During the Gadsby ownership of the house, three generations of the King and Williams families occupied this space. Other lots
on the Square, such as those built by slave owners Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, and Thomas Ewell, housed similar work buildings behind the main residences.

Lafayette Square was also home to one of the most significant institutions of the African-American experience during the Reconstruction period. The Freedman’s Savings Bank was established in 1865 to guard the savings of African-Americans, many of them newly freed slaves or veterans, at the conclusion of the Civil War. In 1869, the Freedman’s Savings Bank moved its headquarters from New York to Washington and constructed a large building, opposite the White House, at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Madison Place. By 1873, the institution held 57 million dollars, the accumulated wealth of 72,000 depositors. Douglass was not aware of the rampant corruption within the institution when he assumed its leadership. Three months after his arrival, the bank collapsed and thousands lost their savings. The building was purchased by the federal government in 1882 and razed in 1899.

In the face of adversity, Lafayette Square was also a place where many African Americans took a stand – from an enslaved woman who sued Henry Clay for her freedom in 1829 to Paul Jennings’ planned escape on the schooner the Pearl, to citizens gathering at St. John’s Church in preparation for the 1963 March on Washington. At the Belasco Theater, black entertainers such as
opera star Lillian Evanti performed before de-segregated audiences at a time when few venues in the city allowed it.