It’s Official, HPRB Approves Park View School Designation as a D.C. Historic Site
The Park View School from the south ca. 1919
The Historic Preservation Review Board voted unanimously yesterday (May 24, 2012) to designate the Park View School a landmark to be entered in the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites, including the interior of the auditorium, and that the nomination be forwarded to the National Register of Historic Places with a positive recommendation for listing as of local significance.
Below is an excerpt from the Historic Preservation Office Staff Report on the Park View School, which sums it up nicely.
Park View Elementary is sui generis. While it is consistent with the school property subtype associated with the first municipal architect, Snowden Ashford, it is unique for its 700-seat auditorium. No other elementary school before 1949 had its own dedicated auditorium, although some had gymnasium/cafeteria/auditorium spaces. And such multipurpose rooms did not compare to this soaring space, with its balcony and remarkable, complicated trusses, clearly calculated to serve as a public meeting and performance venue. Inside and out, Park View is a superior specimen of the public elementary school.
Tags: historic landmarks, Park View, Park View School
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Park View, D.C. 
May 25, 2012 at 1:36 pm
They better not remodel that balcony space now. Good work, Kent.
May 25, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Congratulations to you, Kent, for all your hard work in getting this important recognition. You make me proud of our neighborhood!
May 26, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Congrats, Kent.
May 28, 2012 at 1:46 pm
Kent – You probably have not seen the carnage wrought upon Eastern High School’s grand space on the entrance level. “Repurposed” my a** So it looks like you accomplished this designation in the nick of time.
May 29, 2012 at 4:13 pm
Congratulations, Kent. Your work is immeasurably important!
May 30, 2012 at 2:05 am
Awesome! Thanks for the time and hard work you put into this! Saved for generations!
January 1, 2013 at 8:02 am
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