12 october 1968 & groundbreaking for howard d woodson high school

#OTD 12 October 1968 Northeast residents celebrated the long-awaited groundbreaking of H.D. Woodson High School (55th & Eads Sts, NE). The school was named after Howard Dilworth Woodson (1877-1962), a structural engineer for the city and a civic activist. Woodson was the first public high school in the far northeast neighborhood.

The school opened in 1972 at the height of Black Power, with red, black & green as the school colors and an African warrior with a spear and shield as “mascot”. Known as the “Tower of Power,” the school was an eight-floor concrete marvel with an escalator, indoor pool and greenhouse.

Your comments are welcome below. Do you remember the groundbreaking? Do you have photographs and other ephemera from the groundbreaking? What was there before the school was built? What did you think of the new building? Did the construction impact you? Do you have photographs of the construction? You may comment privately here.

Photo source: Marya Annette McQuirter Collection. Photographer unknown. n.d. The author is a proud graduate of Woodson, Class of 1982.
Deanwood: A Model of Self-Sufficiency in Far Northeast Washington, DC, Deanwood History Project, 2005.