Youth Pride, Inc.

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This building's historic landmark designation recognizes Youth Pride, Inc., which was located here from 1968 to 1981. Pride, Inc. was an important organization within the Black Power Movement and was funded through the War on Poverty, which had started under President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s. Pride adhered to the Black Power Movement's tenet of self-determination and was an important institution at a time of disinvestment, unemployment, and police brutality in the District.

As the first major American city to have a Black majority, DC was a center of the Black Power Movement. Pride, Inc. was established in 1967 by several Black Power activists, including Rufus "Catfish" Mayfield, the organization's first chairman, and future DC Mayor Marion Barry — who had first come to DC two years earlier to chair the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's DC Chapter. Pride was initially funded in August 1967 through a $300,000 grant from Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz. With these funds, "street dudes" in green denim uniforms were hired to clean alleyways, empty lots, and streets, as well as address the city's rat infestation. Due to Pride's success over this one month period, Secretary Wirtz awarded another grant — this time for $2 million — to extend Pride's programming for one-year.

In early 1968, Pride, Inc. moved to the building at 1536 U Street NW, following a renovation completed by Robert Nash and Associates, a Black-owned architectural firm. In its new headquarters and following the April 1968 uprising, Pride began to focus on Black capitalism. Thus, Pride Economic Enteriprises, Inc. (PEEI) was started with the purchase of a landscaping company, which was soon doing work for Giant Foods. PEEI then expanded into gas station ownership and low-income housing. Pride would train young men and then help them find employment through these and other initiatives — although, many more men were trained than employed. In addition to the above enterprises, Pride, Inc. partnered with American University on a work study certificate program, and established a health clinic and drug treatment program.

Over time, starting with the Nixon Adminstration in 1969, funding was reduced and Pride, Inc. was criticized by conservative congressional lawmakers. In 1981, Pride's federal funding was completely cut off and the organization permanently shutdown. This was in response to an embezzlement scandal related to P.I. Properties (a non-profit organization linked to Pride) and centered on Mary Treadwell, one of Pride's co-founders and then executive director.

Marion Barry, another Pride, Inc. co-founder, was elected mayor in 1978 — following stints on the DC Board of Education and DC Council. Pride served as a template for the Summer Youth Employment Program, which Mayor Barry established during his mayorship. 

The building was designed by Frederick B. Pyle in the Renaissance Revival style and completed in 1920. At the time, many car dealerships and other automotive-related businesses were located in this section of DC, particularly along nearby 14th Street. Thus, the building was constructed for the Washington-Virginia Motor Company as an automobile showroom — hence the five round-arched windows along both U and 16th streets. These large windows have distinctive tripartite designs in both their lower and upper sections. The main entrance is in the center arch facing U Street.

The building's facade has limestone rondel bas-reliefs with shields and garlands on the first floor and decorative terra-cotta panels on the second floor. The panels within the second floor's piers are especially ornamented, with raised busts, urns, and filigree patterning.

At the time of construction, the building was only two-stories tall. These floors are clad in limestone. The third story, which sits above the building's classical cornice and dentils, was added in 1930 by the National Radio Institute, which moved a teaching facility into the building in 1927. This story is clad in terra-cotta panels. The National Radio Institute moved out in 1957. Pride, Inc. was located here from 1968 to 1981. The building is now owned by the Center for Community Change Action.

DC Inventory: June 27, 2024
National Register: August 29, 2024
Within Sixteenth Street Historic District