Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, National Capital Parks - East, National Park Service, Cultural Landscape Report

University of Pennsylvania; Mason, Randall; Frisbie, Meg; Lester, Molly; Messner, Faye

The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House is a nationally significant historic site in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Located at 1318 Vermont Avenue NW, the cultural landscape is associated with the life and work of civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune, as well as the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW, or the Council), which Bethune founded in 1935. The cultural landscape includes a front yard, a three-story brick rowhouse, a rear courtyard, and a rear carriage house, and is managed today by the National Park Service. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing resource within both the Logan Circle Historic District and the Greater Fourteenth Street Historic District. In addition, a draft nomination for individual designation of the property is underway as of 2023. The site was developed in the late 19th century as part of a block of rowhouses within D.C.’s Square 242. It took on added levels of significance in 1943, when Bethune and the NCNW purchased the property to establish the first permanent headquarters for the organization. In addition to functioning as a headquarters for the NCNW, the Council House also served as Bethune’s primary residence from 1943 to 1949. Owning this dedicated space in the heart of D.C. allowed the NCNW to lobby for Black women’s rights in the seat of the nation’s power; it also enabled Bethune to hold several significant positions as an educator, political activist, presidential advisor (to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman), institution builder, diplomat to Libera, and civil rights leader. Bethune lived at 1318 Vermont Avenue NW until 1949; she died in 1955, just a few years after moving out of the Council House. The NCNW continued to use the house as its headquarters, but in 1966, a fire broke out in the basement of the primary building, causing extensive damage. The NCNW moved out of the Council House, leaving it unoccupied until 1975. In the late 1970s, the organization undertook a restoration campaign for the primary building, resuming operations in the building in 1977 (although the NCNW's headquarters remained elsewhere). That same year, the NCNW hired Dr. Bettye Collier-Thomas to develop a museum and archives for Black women’s history, with the intention of interpreting those collections for the public at 1318 Vermont Avenue NW. The Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial Museum and National Archives for Black Women’s History (NABWH) officially opened on November 11, 1979. The museum occupied the Council House, while the archives were stored in the Carriage House. The NCNW spearheaded additional rehabilitation projects in the late 20th century. The urn was placed in the front yard in 1979, and the rear courtyard area was redesigned in 1988-89, establishing its present-day configuration. The Council House and Carriage House remained in use as the museum and archives. In 1994, the National Park Service acquired the Council House at 1318 Vermont Avenue NW and assumed responsibility for stewarding the property. The site continued to operate as a museum and archives until 2014, when the National Park Service moved the contents of the National Archives of Black Women’s History from the Carriage House to the NPS Museum Resource Center in Landover, Maryland. After a closure from 2016-18 to install a fire suppression and security system, and another closure from 2020-22 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the site is once again open to the public as the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site. The historic site’s cultural landscape exhibits 11 of the 13 landscape characteristics defined by the National Park Service, including: • Natural Systems and Features • Land Use • Topography • Spatial Organization • Cluster Arrangement • Views and Vistas • Cultural Traditions • Buildings and Structures • Circulation • Vegetation • Small-Scale Features The CLR addresses the historic and existing landscape conditions of each characteristic, building an understanding of how much the site today reflects its character and appearance during the periods of significance. Among the key conclusions of this analysis, this CLR finds: Overall, the front yard retains its historic integrity. This cannot be said for the rear courtyard area, which was substantially altered in the 1980s. As a result, the front and rear yards function as two different character areas within the cultural landscape. This finding has substantial implications for the CLR’s treatment recommendations. The urn in the front yard is a non-contributing feature of the cultural landscape. It was not extant during the period of significance, and its placement on the square pedestal (which was extant during Bethune’s and the NCNW’s association with the site) actually disrupts the understanding of the front yard as a gathering space and speaker’s podium for significant guests and events. This CLR recommends rehabilitation as the treatment for the cultural landscape. This approach allows for the careful management of historic vegetation and the repair and in-kind replacement of historic circulation features responding to water damage due to extreme weather events and climate change. It also allows park managers to re-establish the historic character of vegetation, small-scale features, and other landscape features according to the historic conditions established during the period of significance. The treatment reference date is 1966. The treatment recommendations of this CLR are organized spatially, according to the front character area, rear character area, sitewide recommendations, management policies, and areas for further research and documentation. In addition, the treatment recommendations include suggestions for seasonal maintenance and cyclical planning.

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, National Capital Parks - East, National Park Service, Cultural Landscape Report

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