The Clara Barton Center for Children (CBCC) celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year, continuing a tradition of education in what is one of Cabin John’s historic school buildings.
As Cabin John grew from the rural pastures of the late 1800s to the village of the 1960s and beyond, local children attended schools that ranged from a nearby one-room log cabin to a small schoolhouse on Wilson Lane, fraught with kids’ long walk across the Union Arch Bridge. Local African American children faced further challenges to educational opportunities, moving from various one-room schoolhouses and a five-year period without any schooling options at all. With the opening of the Glen Echo-Cabin John School in 1928, Cabin John’s kids returned to this side of the bridge. In 1955, it was among the first integrated schools in Montgomery County and served as a successful model for others.
When Washington, DC began to limit student enrollment to local taxpayers only, the Glen Echo School on Wilson Lane became more crowded, with 91 students spread across two additional buildings. Cabin John and Glen Echo citizens lobbied for a new school. Land was purchased from the owner of the Cabin John Hotel, Mrs. Bobinger, for $15,000 and despite the contentious issue of naming rights (Glen Echo ultimately got top billing, while Cabin John the location), the community welcomed the Glen Echo-Cabin John School. With strong civic pride from the start, the new school was the recipient of gifts from local groups, including not one but two pianos, as well as a cherished painting donated by a local woman, “only to send her husband hurrying to the school that evening to retrieve their marriage license which had always been kept in the back of the picture frame.” Citizens donated flowers and shrubs and helped with landscaping.
Designed by prominent Washington architect Howard Wright Cutler, the original red brick Glen Echo-Cabin John School was a larger version of the Garrett Park School, also built in 1928. These modern buildings were a departure from the traditional, domestic spaces of small one- and two-room schoolhouses and reflected Montgomery County’s growing identity through a more urban, modern architecture. The original facade of the Glen Echo-Cabin John School (which faces MacArthur Boulevard), with its Art Deco lines and centered decorative stone relief, was considered the most architecturally important aspect of the building. Unfortunately, a 1960s addition to the school partly obscured the noteworthy facade, though one can still glimpse details on the second level exterior.
According to a Maryland Historic Trust site survey, the school “exemplifies the spirit of Montgomery County’s new academic vision….The new image which this building presents–the image of a solid and stable institution that is both tradition and modern–is the visual equivalent of major reforms in the public school system during the post World War 1 period.”
In 1944, befitting this symbolic reform, the school changed its name to honor Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross. And in 1954, it became one of the first schools in the county to integrate following the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. The number of African American students at the school–14 percent–was higher than any other elementary school in the county at the time.
After Bannockburn Elementary School opened in 1957, enrollment at the Clara Barton School dropped. It closed in 1974 and became the recreation center. That following year, a one-room kindergarten class was opened. Today, the Clara Barton Center for Children continues to teach and nurture preschool children in this historic local building.
By Rachel Donnan
CJ Historian