This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM is visiting a school he only just learned about: the Threlkeld School.
Recently, GM went through a list of all the current and historic schools in Georgetown and where their names came from. But he missed this school building and only learned about it while searching through old newspapers.
The photo above comes from the DC Public Library archives and shows the school at some unknown date. (Although it is likely no later than 1935, since the same photo appeared in a newspaper that year.) The school was on the northeast corner of Prospect and 36th. It was constructed in 1868 and was a public school. It was named after John Threlkold, the fourth mayor of Georgetown.
It remained in use as a school only for 61 years. It was closed in 1929 after the opening of Gordon Junior High made it unnecessary.
The building found a new purpose during World War II. Located adjacent to the old Georgetown Hospital, the school building (which had been purchased by the federal government at this point) was impressed into service as a nursing school.
It’s unclear when it was ultimately demolished, but it was before 1958 when Walsh building arose on that corner.
