Information Panel: Campus to Army Camps and Back Again

Information Panel: Campus to Army Camps and Back Again

NPS / Claire Hassler

Quick Facts

Location:

Meridian Hill Park

Amenities

2 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Wheelchair Accessible

The Campus to Army Camps and Back Again outdoor exhibit sits in the northeast corner of Meridian Hill Park. The text describes the Union Army's use of what would become Meridian Hill Park during the Civil War.

During the Civil War, the Union Army commandeered the farmland on which Meridian Hill Park would eventually be built. The Army built camps there with names like Cameron, Relief, Carver, and Barclay. As the war continued, numerous hospitals, including Columbian and Mount Pleasant, were established in the same area. After the Civil War, Meridian Hill became a middle-class African American neighborhood. Wayland Seminary, which had opened in Foggy Bottom to train young African American men and women as preachers and teachers for the South, moved to a building at Chapin and 15th Streets in 1875. The school operated there until merging with Richmond Theological Seminary in 1899 to form Virginia Union University in Richmond. Booker T. Washington, noted African American political leader, educator, orator, and author, was one of Wayland's distinguished alumni.

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For more information about Meridian Hill Park, visit the Meridian Hill Park Landing Page on the Rock Creek Park Website.