Georgetown Time Machine: Hebrew Academy

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I’m checking out another photo from the DC Historical Society’s archives. Like last week, it’s a photo from the John Wymer collection. This is an incredible collection of street photos taken by Wymer all over DC around 1950. This particular shot is of the Hebrew Academy, which stood in the former Curtis School on O St.

I’ve discussed the Curtis School many times in the past as it’s probably the “lost” Georgetown building I miss most of all. It was the first school building built on the education campus between O and P Streets. It was constructed in 1875 and had a striking Second Empire design:

This is what I’ve written previously about the history of the building:

Curtis school was designed by the great Washington architect Adolph Cluss, who designed Eastern Market and thirteen other DC school buildings, including the historic Franklin School. It was named after William Wallace Curtis, who was president of the Board of Trustees for Georgetown (which ran Georgetown’s public schools when it was its own municipality).

It was quite large, as you can see in the photo above. It was three stories tall, plus an ample mansard roof. The tower rose even higher. And it was built to be more than just a school. It was built to be home to the Peabody Library, a public library funded by a $15,000 donation by George Peabody in 1867. This fund was supplemented by an even larger $50,000 donation from Edward Linthicum (the owner of Dumbarton Oaks). The city of Georgetown kicked in roughly $35,000 more to build the school building with the Peabody Library inside. You can even see the sign for the library on the left side of the building in the photo above.

But even with the library and all the classrooms, Curtis still had room. And the school administrators took up that space. Throughout the last part of the 19th century, Bernard T. Janney ran the fifth school division out of Curtis (Janney School is named after him).

And in 1890, the newly formed Western High School also took up space in Curtis. (If you’re wondering where the elementary school kids fit in, they probably got mostly switched over to the Addison School next door, which opened a few years earlier.) Western High School remained for eight years until its home on 35th St. was opened (the current Duke Ellington School).

Like all the other school buildings in Georgetown, Curtis ran into enrollment challenges in the 20th century. In the 1920s, it was merged with Addison and Hyde. Hyde taught the youngest kids, Addison the middle aged kids, and Curtis was converted into a vocational high school. That didn’t last. Addison was closed for being obsolete in 1944. And two years later Curtis was closed. It was briefly leased out to the Hebrew Academy. But it was torn down in 1951.

The Hebrew Academy is now known as the Berman Hebrew Academy, located in Rockville. It was founded in 1944. Here is an article from two years later, when the school took over the abandoned Curtis School:

The school next moved to a location in 16th St. Heights:

There was a debate in 1951 whether to keep the building:

But ultimately the decision was taken to tear it down. It stood where the Hyde-Addison playground is, so it should be said that generations of school children enjoyed a much larger playground than they would have if the school were saved. So I can’t be too sore about it….