D.C. native and Jazz legend Edward “Duke” Ellington lived in this townhome temporarily from 1919 to 1922. This is one of five other houses in Washington, D.C. that Ellington lived in. Also bearing his name is the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which was founded approximately 40 years from now.

One of the most honored African-American poets, Paul Laurence Dunbar, lived in this LeDroit Park home from 1898 to 1902. In his life, Dunbar went on to receive a ceremonial sword from President Theodore Roosevelt as well as publish 12 volumes of poetry and a play.

Mary Church Terrell, the first African-American woman to serve on an American school board and the founder and first president of the National Association of Colored Women, formerly lived in this LeDroit Park home. It has since become a National Historic Landmark, declared so in 1975. In 2009, a restoration effort was completed on the home.

There is also a mixed-use complex in Chinatown that bears Terrell’s name.

Carter G. Woodson is known as the founder of Black History Month, being one of the first scholars to study African-American history. Because of this, he has also been known as the father of black history. In this former home of Woodson, he managed the operations of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History as well as published the Negro History Bulletin and the Journal of Negro History. Until the early 1970s, the property continued to serve as the Association’s headquarters.

In 1976, the residence was designated a National Historic Landmark before being labeled a National Historic Site in 2003. The National Park Service acquired the property in 2005 and opened it to the public in 2017.

This three-story Victorian home was once the residence of Mary McLeod Bethune as well as the headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune is known for having started a private school for African-American students in Florida as well as being a national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of what was known as the Black Cabinet.

The home and its carriage house were restored in the mid-1970s before opening as a museum in 1981. Thereafter, the American Institute of Architects awarded the restoration effort a historic preservation citation of merit.

This 21-room Victorian residence in Anacostia is preserved as a National Historic Site, acting as a museum to the life and efforts of writer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. When Douglass lived in the home, he named it Cedar Hill.

After Douglass passed away in 1895, the house was owned by the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association and later the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs before the federal government took ownership of the residence. Also on the site is a visitor center and a reconstruction of the building where Douglass went to write and study.