Structural repairs and a new elevator are among the changes at the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site in Shaw, which is scheduled to welcome visitors Saturday after a rehabilitation. The National Park Service operates the site. The restored complex at 1538 Ninth Street NW includes a museum, visitor center, gift shop, classrooms and space for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the organization Woodson founded in 1915 as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Washingtonian reports. Admission is free.
The work took place in three phases and covered the home, adjoining rowhouses and exhibit spaces. Crews repaired the foundation, replaced the roof and reinforced the brick facade with rods installed behind the masonry, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. An elevator now allows visitors to reach the home’s upper floor, which had not previously been open to them, the National Park Foundation reports.
Woodson bought the house for $8,000 and lived there from 1922 until his death in 1950, using it as a place to work and write. He began Negro History Week there in 1926; the observance later grew into Black History Month. Congress designated the house a National Historic Site in 2003, and it became the 389th unit of the National Park System in 2006, according to the National Park Foundation.
Shaw Before Woodson
Shaw’s earlier development provides context for the neighborhood Woodson later called home. A D.C. Historic Preservation Office brochure says the area was first settled by people who built individual frame and brick homes, later joined by small rows of speculative housing. The D.C. Office of Planning says the Shaw Historic District was designated in 1999, with a period of significance from 1833 to 1932. These preservation sources describe the neighborhood’s physical development, but do not explain how it became a center of Black cultural and civic life.
The closure lasted longer than projected. In February 2024, farmvilleherald.com reported that the home remained closed and that the National Park Service was anticipating a reopening the following winter, citing further stabilization work. Reports also differ on the timing of the $5.6 million renovation contract awarded to Perini Management Services: farmvilleherald.com dates the award to 2015, while a 2019 press release from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton described the same contract as newly underway that year.
The site’s open house is Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no reservation required. Regular hours begin the following Tuesday: Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors may register for tours through Recreation.gov; advance reservations carry a $1 booking fee.
