Grimke School, Vermont Avenue NW, between T and U Streets



 

Formerly the Phelps School, an 8-room building was erected on this site in 1887, and served as the Business Department of M Street High School from 1912 to 1916.  From 1924 to 1925, it was renamed Phelps Colored Vocational School, and in 1934, it became Grimke Elementary.  Additions were made to the building in 1937.  Typical of the brick schools built in D.C. in the 1880s and 1890s, this school is distinguished by its handsome rusticated stone base.  The building is used today by the D.C. Fire Department and the D.C. Department of Corrections.  The school was named for Archibald H. Grimké, a lawyer, biographer, and US consul to Santo Domingo.