Uplifting a Living History, Ensuring a Just Future

We are advocating to transform the historic landmark at Barry Farm into a commemorative space for uplifting the history and social justice legacy of the people who formerly occupied this land. Today, the landmarked buildings and four streets named for abolitionists are all that remain of an African community that had been there since 1867, when the federal government first designated this area as a site for Black landownership. The preservation of these buildings ensures that the successive waves of people who occupied and were displaced from Barry Farm are not erased from a gentrifying landscape that may soon be unrecognizable to its past inhabitants.

The landmarked portion of the Barry Farm public housing site — on the 1100 block of Stevens Road SE — are five buildings representing a total of 40 housing units. These include the former home of plaintiffs in the 1954 Supreme Court case that desegregated DC public schools, as well as the homes of leaders in the 1960s national welfare rights movement. The 2020 historic landmark victory automatically added these buildings to the DC Inventory of Historic Sites, ensuring that they will not be demolished and instead will serve, in the words of DC’s Historic Preservation Review Board, as “a meaningful commemorative site” for uplifting the history and legacy of the community.

A series of public events in 2022-2023 engaged community members in envisioning future uses for the landmarked buildings, resulting in a resource booklet to guide future plans for the site.