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Our Home: The Josephine Butler Parks Center
People has established the
Josephine Butler Parks Center as a lasting, living
tribute to its late co-chair, an activist who devoted
her entire life to championing those who had been forgotten
about, from the earthworm to the whole of Washington, DC.
Located in the densest and most diverse community in DC, at
the crossroads of Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, Reed Cooke/Adams
Morgan, and Shaw, the Parks Center includes the following:
- COMMUNITY PERFORMANCE & SPECIAL EVENT FACILITY -- Ballroom & Twin Galleries (5,000
square feet; seated dinner capacity of 200)
- TRAINING SPACE for grassroots leaders restoring Washington's
forgotten public spaces
- Parks VISITOR CENTER, neighborhood technical assistance, and heritage archives
- AFTER-SCHOOL ARTS & EDUCATIONAL CENTER tied into Meridian
Hill/ Malcolm X Park
- MULTI-MEDIA LAB
- TUTORING PROGRAM for children in transitional housing
- INCUBATOR LOFT for start-up community initiatives
- JOB PLACEMENT AND TRAINING SERVICE
- ENVIRONMENTAL NON-PROFIT CATERING SERVICE with job training
- HEADQUARTERS for a dozen diverse organizations working to
advance innercity Washington
Background
Formerly the Embassy of Hungary and Brazil,
the 18,000-square foot, 40-room Renaissance Revival-style
"Meridian Hill House" was designed by George
Oakley Totten Jr., the noted architect who designed over a
dozen major embassy buildings across the city, including all
but one of the grand old mansions that today abut Meridian
Hill/ Malcolm X Park. The developer of the property was Mary
Foote Henderson, widow of the Missouri senator who introduced
the 13th Amendment giving African Americans the right to vote.
She lived in a Romanesque castle that she and Sen. Henderson
constructed in 1888 at the foot of the Park at the corner
of 16th and Florida(the Henderson castle's rampart
walls are still standing). Mrs. Henderson led the drive to
advance Meridian Hill as the cultural center of Washington,
inspired by the City Beautiful movement at the turn of the
century. She is best known as the person who successfully
lobbied Congress to construct Meridian Hill Park as America's
first national park for the performing arts.
The area around the Parks Center is steeped
in history. Meridian Hill takes its name from Thomas Jefferson's
plan to mark the Prime Meridian for the Earth from this hilltop.
Over the years, the hilltop has been the site of a Native
American spiritual ground, the birthplace of both George Washington
University and an African American theological seminary, and
a Civil War Union Army hospital. The hill was where Colonel
Robert Gould Shaw camped before going to his death as commander
of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the black brigade featured
in the movie Glory. It has been home to Presidents from John
Quincy Adams to John F. Kennedy, and to writers from Joaquin
Miller, "poet of the Sierras," to Carlos Fuentes
and Ethelbert Miller.
The Parks Center is named after the late
community leader who led the drive to restore and complete
Meridian Hill/ Malcolm X Park as what the Washington Post
calls "the jewel of Washington's parks". Honored
by the President of the United States as the nation's top
parks/community partnership and "a shining example for
the nation," Washington Parks & People now operates
the Parks Center as a "greenhouse" for advancing
Washington's parks and public spaces. The Center houses 12
community-based non-profit culture and service organizations,
from the Washington Symphony Orchestra to the Young Playwrights
Theater. It also serves as a grand meeting space for events
of all kinds serving the metropolitan area, including concerts,
dances, poetry readings, conferences, classes of all kinds,
and wedding receptions.
The Center has completed an award-winning
and dramatic exterior restoration to its former glory. Interior
spaces have been adapted to serve a broad range of modern
needs. The features of the improved Center will include a
multi-purpose performance and special event facility, art
exhibition and gallery space, a visitor center, a media center,
an after-school program, a neighborhood park revitalization
center, a job training and referral service, a teaching kitchen,
and a non-profit incubator loft. Ongoing interior and exterior
historic restoration initiatives include repair and polishing
of ornamental plaster, terrazzo, marble, glazed terracotta,
faux limestone, and oak parquet finishes; installation of
new heating and cooling systems; lighting enhancements; and
landscaping.
The Inspiration-- Josephine Butler
 | Daughter of sharecroppers and granddaughter
of people who were enslaved, Josephine Butler (1920-1997)
was one of innercity Washington's most respected community
leaders, who helped shape nearly every major social change
initiative in Washington since the 1930's. She started America's
first-ever union of black women laundry workers, she helped
lead the integration of the Adams and Morgan Schools, she
educated thousands of children about the hazards of air pollution
a generation before the environmental movement began, she
was a lifelong leader in pressing for health care reform,
and she co-founded the statehood movement for the District
of Columbia. She became a champion of park revitalization
to give our communities a place to come together, our children
a safe outdoor place to learn about the world, and our city
a place to champion true home rule for the lands we cal home.
Led by Ms. Butler at the time of her death, Washington Parks
& People has named the historic building at 2437 15th
Street, NW, after her -- in the heart of the community in
which she lived and worked for 63 years. |
The Josephine Butler Parks Center will
be a living tribute to her lifetime of loving, inspired leadership.
A few Jo Butler sayings we like to remember:
- A Rock, A River, A Tree -- A Park for All People
- It's a huge task-- that's why we have to get started.
- Leave no child behind.
- Remember the earthworm.
Your Own Event at the Parks
Center!
The Josephine Butler Parks Center, dramatically situated on an elevated, landscaped half-acre lot in a prime location overlooking Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park, provides
an excellent venue for a wide variey of events. Conferences,
seminars, workshops, classes, meetings, recitals, concerts,
theatrical performances, weddings, receptions, parties--all
are welcome at the Parks Center! Check out the Parks Center's features as well as our
wedding photo gallery.
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Port cochere and Terrace
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The Italian Renaissance-revival
style architecture of this former embassy provides a
grand setting for small or large events. From Fifteenth
Street, a circular drive leads to the main entrance
under the marble-columned Port Cochere. From the second floor, the Terrace Balcony offers a beautiful western exposure to sunsets across the Meridian Hill Park.
Once inside, the public areas include
the Lobby and Visitors Center on the first floor, and
the Ballroom, Gallery, Foyer, and Terrace on the second
floor (see floor plans). In addition, the Center features vaulted 14-foot ceilings with original moldings, large working fireplaces with carved wooden mantels, and floor-to-ceiling windows with French doors opening to wrought iron balconies.
These spaces can be rented individually
or combined together in any number of ways to meet the
size of your event or program. The Ballroom and adjoining
Gallery together can hold up to 150 people for a sit-down
dinner or up to 300 for a standing reception. |
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Reception in the Ballroom
Meridian Hill
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You also have the option of having a
combined event with programs in the park! Hold your
wedding ceremony in the park and your reception in the
Parks Center, or combine a meeting or seminar in the
Parks Center with a community outing in the park!
The facility also offers a full-service warming kitchen available on the second floor.
The Parks Center has its own parking lot and is easily reached
by public transportation.
The Saturday wedding fee is $4000. Please contact us for full pricing details. Discounts
are available for charitable community and parks events.
For meetings and other community programs, prices vary,
depending on the number of rooms requested and the duration
of the event. The National Park Service charges $200
for ceremonies in Meridian Hill Park; NPS also requires
a permit.
For more information, send us an
email using the Contact
Us page of this website, or call Washington
Parks & People at 202-GO-2-PARK (202-462-7275). |
PDF Registration Forms
If you do not have Adobe Reader, you can download a free version
from their website in order to view the pdf format.
 
(A separate pop-up window will let you view floor plans.)
Miracle Workers: Center Funders
and Lead Volunteers
We are deeply grateful for all the support we have received. We proudly acknowledge the major funders and volunteers who have helped us with the building's renewal as well as with our mission of reclaiming parks:
- The Advisory Board Foundation
- Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1-B
- AmeriCorps/Youth Service America
- American Red Cross
- American University
- Anonymous
- ya Arax
- Archbishop Carroll School
- Asian Pacific Community Service
- Tom Babbitt
- Bancroft Elementary School
- Bell Multicultural Senior High School
- Burgundy Crescent
- Canon USA
- Cardozo Senior High School
- Eric Colbert and Associates
- Pamela Vaughn Cooke
- Coolidge House Associates
- Creative Carpentry Associates
- Council of Latino Agencies
- Larry Deahl
- Dell Corporation
- Lynn French
- Development Corporation of Columbia Heights
- DC City Council
- DC Dep't of Housing and Community Development
- DC Jewish Community Center/ Behrend Builders Shelter Repair Program
- Dorchester House
- Wally Etienne, AIA
- Councilmember Jack Evans
- Family & Friends of Josephine Butler
- Fannie Mae Foundation
- Arthur and Myrna Fawcett
- Friends of Meridian Hill
- Tatiana Simone Gau Foundation
- Georgetown Day School
- Georgetown University
- George Washington University
- Morris Gewirz Family (Memorial Gift)
- Steven Gewirz
- Councilmember Jim Graham, Ward One
- Greater DC Cares
- Susan Griffin
- Howard University
- Immaculate Conception School
- Raul Jarquin
- John O'Leary
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- Latin American Youth Center
- Helen Sperry Lea Foundation
- Linowes & Blocher
- Leslie Louden
- Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
- Othello Mahone
- Carlos Manjarrez
- Eugene and Agnes Meyer Foundation
- National Trust for Historic Preservation
- Neighbors in Action
- Oyster Elementary School
- Dusty McClintick
- Dwight McClintick Cascade Fund
- Nick Pappas, Julien J. Studley, Inc
- Malcolm and Pamela Peabody
- Peabody & Theoharis
- Wanda Pope
- Potomac Investment Properties
- Morton H. Press, Esq
- Prince Charitable Trusts
- Project North Star
- Reed-Cooke Neighborhood Association
- Rozanne Look, Esq.
- Schoenbaum Foundation
- Seed School
- Single Volunteers of DC
- So Others Might Eat
- Sun Trust Bank
- Earnestine Taylor
- Washington Architectural Foundation
- Washington Chapter, AIA
- Washington House
- Washington Parks & People Members
- Matthew S. Watson, Esq.
- Mayor Anthony Williams
- Young Playwrights Theater
- And THOUSANDS of volunteers!
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