Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Many were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.

Circa 1917. "Said to be the first school in the District of Columbia, 4th & C Streets S.E." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
On the Google Map you will notice a tree lined boulevard on the other side of the gas station - that is likely where the streetcar tracks were located. I live on a similar street with a boulevard where trolley tracks were located at one time. We even found a spike in our front yard - must have been tossed when they took the tracks up.
I find it interesting that there appear to be two display windows on the front of the building.
[It had been repurposed as a shop at some point. - tterrace]
It appears that nothing from this photograph has survived - with the possible exception of the tree at the left of the Street View image. I'm no arborist, so I ask those who are wiser in these matters - is it conceivable that the tree shown below is more than 96 years old, and was present when the 1917 photograph was taken?
[Not unless it decided it was tired of being a maple. - Dave]
[At the risk of further exposing my arboreal ignorance, I was talking about the tree at left, that's mostly cut out of the inline Street View (it was visible in the view I originally posted) - scroll left a bit and you'll see it. To me, it resembles the one at the left of the 1917 photo.]
[I was talking about the tree at the left too. Which has completely different leaves. - Dave]
[Consider me edified. A plant detective I shall never be.]
Behind the former school seems to be a passing train, more likely a streetcar. Besides being the first school in DC it also looks like the building has the first awnings.
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