The home, built in 1875 and restored post-fire in the early 1900s, is a wonderful specimen on its own accord. A Victorian design boosts its 19th-century DC charm with vast, wide doorways and ornate woodwork. It's a place steeped in history by its very being, its place overlooking the growth and development of our nation's capital over the better part of 150 years, and it's worth a visit just because of this.
But the building it also steeped in history from another angle; it was the cradle of equality and tolerance in a woefully divided nation. Here, Mary McLeod Bethune brought African-American rights to the forefront of the government. Here, she was able to build a base from which to lobby for reform, beginning at the very top. Indeed, she met with Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and became close friends with Eleanor Roosevelt (who stayed with her at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach for extended periods later on). Here, she lobbied for -- and won -- many acts of equality, tearing down the barriers that separated one American citizen from another.
The Council House isn't the biggest or most popular of the area's national historic sites, but it's certainly well worth a visit. The park rangers are extremely knowledgeable, the artifacts and history interpreted within the house are excellent, and the home itself is certainly impressive as well!
Unfortunately, the Carter G. Woodson Home is not open to the public; you'll have to get your stamp at the Council House instead. (The Park Service would like to restore it, but funding is lacking, so there it sits, condemned and abandoned.) But since the two sites are just a few blocks apart, go ahead and walk over to pay the home a visit, and imagine it in its former grandeur.
The Mary McLeod Bethune Council House.
The Carter G. Woodson Home.
