Photo by NCinDC.

Let me tell you about a university, in the Shaw neighborhood, that was founded to serve African Americans. Except, I’m not talking about Howard University, I’m talking about Frelinghuysen University.

Black educators Jesse and Rosetta Lawson founded Frelinghuysen University (what a mouthful), originally located at 2011 Vermont Avenue, and then located at 1800 Vermont Avenue, in 1906 to provide social services, religious training, and educational programs for black working-class adults. The university is named after New Jersey Senator Frederick Frelinghuysen who had worked to promote civil rights during Reconstruction.

Before the university purchased 1800 Vermont Avenue (formerly the home of Edwin P. Goodwin, an insurance agent) they operated the school out of private homes and businesses around the city. The university only used the house for 6 years, from 1921 to 1927, as classrooms. They then operated out of a larger house at 601 M Street NW, and then the home of Anna Cooper at 201 T Street, NW.

The university had accreditation and gave degrees to students from 1927 until 1937. Unfortunately it lost its accreditation and then lost a lot of support. In 1940 the university became the Frelinghuysen Group of Schools for Colored Working People under Anna Cooper. The institution dissolved in the late 1950s.

1800 Vermont Avenue, pictured in 2008, has now been renovated back into a private home. It’s quite a beautiful house with decorative brickwork and a gable roof. The building features a decorative stone on the corner tower with the date 1879, the year the house was built, on it.

So the next time you walk by 1800 Vermont Avenue, or 601 M Street, or 201 T Street, think of the university that once existed to educate the working-class blacks of the early 20th century and Frelinghuysen, who worked for civil rights long before it became the cause to advocate.