Last updated: December 19, 2023
Place
Conduit School
NPS / Claire Hassler
Quick Facts
Location:
Palisades
Significance:
Last one-room school used in DC
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
Amenities
1 listed
Cellular Signal
Conduit Road School is a 19th-century one-room school house originally built in 1864 and re-built in 1874.
The school served the Palisades community until 1928.
Miss E.N. Bevard was appointed as teacher in 1890 and served the school for many years. She was a popular teacher and seven months after her appointment to the school, her students led a campaign to try and help her win the Sunday Herald's free European vacation for the city's most popular teacher. In June her students submitted almost 1200 votes to put her in the lead compared to other city teachers. Unfortunately, by July she had fallen into fourth place.
The school was built with 1860s education standards in mind and had few amenities. In 1907, the school was blasted for not having a water supply. A female African-American "janitress" brought water for the children when she reported for duty in the mornings.
Sometime between 1907 and 1928 a pump was installed, but the school was still far behind the quality of other area schools.
By 1917 the school was openly called antiquated and considered an unacceptable facility for students. Suffering from over-crowding, Conduit Road School had four grade levels that were being taught in the one room.
A 1920 article in the Evening Star was headlined "D.C. School, Relic of Bygone Days, Menace to Pupils."
By 1927, plans were in the works to close the school. For a time, it was used as a branch of the public library.
It was the last one-room school to be used in the district.
The Palisades branch of the DC Library operated out of the former school until 1965 when the larger branch nearby opened. The structure had the potential to be demolished but it was saved by the Palisades Citizens Association. For the next 24 years, it was used as the Children's Museum of Washington.
In 1989 it was used as a children's library and rented out by the Discovery Creek Children's Museum.
Recently, plans have been made for the Palisades History Museum to use the space for exhibits, though extensive restoration work is needed.
The facility remains closed to the public.
The school served the Palisades community until 1928.
Miss E.N. Bevard was appointed as teacher in 1890 and served the school for many years. She was a popular teacher and seven months after her appointment to the school, her students led a campaign to try and help her win the Sunday Herald's free European vacation for the city's most popular teacher. In June her students submitted almost 1200 votes to put her in the lead compared to other city teachers. Unfortunately, by July she had fallen into fourth place.
The school was built with 1860s education standards in mind and had few amenities. In 1907, the school was blasted for not having a water supply. A female African-American "janitress" brought water for the children when she reported for duty in the mornings.
Sometime between 1907 and 1928 a pump was installed, but the school was still far behind the quality of other area schools.
By 1917 the school was openly called antiquated and considered an unacceptable facility for students. Suffering from over-crowding, Conduit Road School had four grade levels that were being taught in the one room.
A 1920 article in the Evening Star was headlined "D.C. School, Relic of Bygone Days, Menace to Pupils."
"One-Room Shack poorly lighted and heated by ancient stoves.
Within two miles of the thickly populated section of Washington there stands a picturesque old rural schoolhouse. which the youth of the are required to attend under the laws of the District. It is only one of the several old-fashioned types of buildings in the public school system. which were erected soon after the civil war and still are called I upon to accommodate the children of the nation's capital. When built, in 1874. a sign bearing the inscription. "Public School." was placed on the front. Today the same sign remains on the building, but it is known to residents of the the children, and school as "The Conduit Road School."
The building is located on a government reservation on the heavily traveled Conduit road about a mile and a half from Georgetown. Despite its prominent situation, its existence is virtually unknown to a majority, of the residents of Washington.
This school was considered a model in its day. but that was forty-seven years ago. It is a small, one-room frame structure, which boasts a single modern convenience, a telephone. The school has no lighting system. Its heating facilities consist of two old stoves, which are said to have been condemned years ago and referred to by the children as "hard coal burners." The only time the stoves throw out sufficient heat to warm the small room, it is said, is on a warm day. The cold days of winter find the pupils shivering, and their teeth chattering.
Unlike the more modern schools in the city limits, the Conduit Road School has no running water. When the pupils want a drink they are forced to go behind the schoolhouse and draw it from a pump. The pump, however, is a more recent innovation at the school. The children attending there about a decade ago were to depend on an old colored janitoress for their water supply. The colored woman brought the water to school with her each morning. Another quaint sign which greets a visitor at the school is a wash basin and soap in the cloakroom of the building. (The wash basin is clearly discernible in the accompanying Conforming with the old-fashioned ideas of school construction, the cloakroom of the school was built at the entrance. It has not been changed, except it is piled high with discarded schoolroom furniture, making it dangerous for the children to pass through to hang up hats and coats.
In the building's lone room there are four classes, under one teacher, as in the days of yore. They consist of the first, second, third and fourth grades. Children promoted to higher grades are forced to attend the Reservoir School, about a mile from the Conduit Road School. The enrollment at this school today totals thirty-one, the smallest, in any school in the city. There are thirty-six seats in the school, making five vacant. It was pointed out, however, that if the school was larger and had facilities for pupils in higher grades its enrollment would increase. Children attending this school come from a radius of a mile and a half.
When the school was built In 1874 It cost school officials $1,200. Since its erection there have been but few improvements. One of the improvements in recent years was the of the single room. This was done two years ago and was chronicled as one of the events in the school's history."
Within two miles of the thickly populated section of Washington there stands a picturesque old rural schoolhouse. which the youth of the are required to attend under the laws of the District. It is only one of the several old-fashioned types of buildings in the public school system. which were erected soon after the civil war and still are called I upon to accommodate the children of the nation's capital. When built, in 1874. a sign bearing the inscription. "Public School." was placed on the front. Today the same sign remains on the building, but it is known to residents of the the children, and school as "The Conduit Road School."
The building is located on a government reservation on the heavily traveled Conduit road about a mile and a half from Georgetown. Despite its prominent situation, its existence is virtually unknown to a majority, of the residents of Washington.
This school was considered a model in its day. but that was forty-seven years ago. It is a small, one-room frame structure, which boasts a single modern convenience, a telephone. The school has no lighting system. Its heating facilities consist of two old stoves, which are said to have been condemned years ago and referred to by the children as "hard coal burners." The only time the stoves throw out sufficient heat to warm the small room, it is said, is on a warm day. The cold days of winter find the pupils shivering, and their teeth chattering.
Unlike the more modern schools in the city limits, the Conduit Road School has no running water. When the pupils want a drink they are forced to go behind the schoolhouse and draw it from a pump. The pump, however, is a more recent innovation at the school. The children attending there about a decade ago were to depend on an old colored janitoress for their water supply. The colored woman brought the water to school with her each morning. Another quaint sign which greets a visitor at the school is a wash basin and soap in the cloakroom of the building. (The wash basin is clearly discernible in the accompanying Conforming with the old-fashioned ideas of school construction, the cloakroom of the school was built at the entrance. It has not been changed, except it is piled high with discarded schoolroom furniture, making it dangerous for the children to pass through to hang up hats and coats.
In the building's lone room there are four classes, under one teacher, as in the days of yore. They consist of the first, second, third and fourth grades. Children promoted to higher grades are forced to attend the Reservoir School, about a mile from the Conduit Road School. The enrollment at this school today totals thirty-one, the smallest, in any school in the city. There are thirty-six seats in the school, making five vacant. It was pointed out, however, that if the school was larger and had facilities for pupils in higher grades its enrollment would increase. Children attending this school come from a radius of a mile and a half.
When the school was built In 1874 It cost school officials $1,200. Since its erection there have been but few improvements. One of the improvements in recent years was the of the single room. This was done two years ago and was chronicled as one of the events in the school's history."
By 1927, plans were in the works to close the school. For a time, it was used as a branch of the public library.
It was the last one-room school to be used in the district.
The Palisades branch of the DC Library operated out of the former school until 1965 when the larger branch nearby opened. The structure had the potential to be demolished but it was saved by the Palisades Citizens Association. For the next 24 years, it was used as the Children's Museum of Washington.
In 1989 it was used as a children's library and rented out by the Discovery Creek Children's Museum.
Recently, plans have been made for the Palisades History Museum to use the space for exhibits, though extensive restoration work is needed.
The facility remains closed to the public.