REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Amended National Register Documentation:
Historic Howard Theatre
620 T Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001
Deadline: September 9, 2024
Click for RFP
Background: In 2024, the DC Preservation League (DCPL) received an award from the National Park Service African American Civil Rights grant program to underwrite the research and documentation needed to update and amend the existing National Register Nomination for the historic Howard Theatre, located at 620 T Street, NW, in Washington, DC (NRIS 74002162.)
Constructed in 1910, the Howard Theatre is one of the oldest theaters in the country. During the 1920s, the theater showcased vaudeville acts, talent shows, musicals, and other live theatre, making it the premier entertainment center for the Black Community in Washington, DC. At the time, it was the only space of its kind that both served Black audiences and showcased Black artists and performers. By the 1930s, names like Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway and Nat King Cole all graced the stage. And later, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, James Brown, and The Supremes stood in Howard’s spotlight. For more than five decades of the twentieth century, the Howard Theatre stood at the forefront of Black entertainment, providing opportunities for artists on a local and national level.
However, the Howard was not just a music venue. It was a community gathering place where Howard University students were meeting as early as 1919 to support the NAACP’s efforts to combat lynching. Black leaders like W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington gave speeches there, and poet and anti-lynching advocate Georgia Douglas Johnson hosted a weekly literary salon, the “Saturday Nighters,” where guests would read their work, and discuss art and politics of the time. Local groups also organized benefit concerts and other events at the Howard to raise funds for civil rights organizations.
The theatre was added to: the DC Inventory of Historic Sites in 1973; the National Register of Historic Places in 1975; and named an American Treasure via Save America’s Treasures program in 2000. However, designations do not include information about the role the theatre played as a prominent organizing space for African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. The updated nomination will include information on ways in which the Howard Theatre was critical to the African American struggle for Civil Rights in the 20th Century.
The grantee for this project, DCPL, is Washington’s citywide nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, protecting, and enhancing the historic resources of our nation’s capital—like the Howard Theatre. DCPL’s mission is carried out through education, community outreach, research and documentation, and advocacy.
Purpose: DCPL seeks proposals from qualified Consultants (Consultant) interested in undertaking the research necessary to prepare an amendment to National Register Nomination for the historic Howard Theatre, specifically highlighting its role in the Civil Rights movement.
