In Closed Schools, History Lessons

Archivist Combs Through Basements

For Nancye Suggs, the call from D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's office about nearly two dozen schools she planned to close was bittersweet: Suggs said that she was heartbroken about the loss, in one fell swoop, of so much history but that she was ecstatic Rhee was offering her a chance to retrieve some of it.

Since June 12, when the schools were closed for good, Suggs has scoured the bowels of the buildings and filled her Jeep Grand Cherokee to its roof with boxes of memorabilia: large portraits of long-ago principals, snapshots of school events spanning decades, yearbooks, trophies and student artwork and writing.

For 21 years, Suggs, 65, has been the school system's official pack rat, amassing an array of documents, keepsakes and stories as an administrator and eventually as director and curator of the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives. Cataloging and sorting the material she has gathered will be among her last duties for the school system. Suggs is retiring in September.

"You know when it's time to go," Suggs said. "Age creeps up on you."

"I've expanded the reading room and collection and sold the powers that be on the importance of keeping the archives," she said. "I think I've done everything I can do."

Suggs is not a trained archivist or curator. A graduate of D.C. Teachers College, she worked in various administrative jobs at the central office for about 20 years before transferring to the newly established Sumner museum in 1987. Still, according to historians who use the facility, she has helped build it into a credible institution.

Throughout the five-story former school building at 1201 17th St. NW are original documents and copies of records dating to the establishment of the school system in 1804. There is a file on every school, detailing information such as who owned the land on which it was built, how much was paid for it and what the original architectural plans showed.

An extensive photo collection includes shots of opera star Denyce Graves when she was a student at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Northwest; Attorney General Robert Kennedy and journalist Mike Wallace visiting with students at Cardozo High School in Northwest; and President Jimmy Carter's daughter, Amy, when she was a student at Stevens Elementary in Northwest, one of the schools that was recently closed.

Exhibits include Wilson High School and the shuttered Western, Armstrong and Central high schools, including student newspapers, letter jackets, programs from football games and trophies.

Recently, a TV production company working on a documentary on Marvin Gaye requested photos of the schools the late soul singer attended, including Cardozo.

Suggs, who grew up in the District, is a walking repository of school system history.

For instance, she can tell museum visitors about the people for whom the schools were named: Sumner, one of the first schools built for black children during the days of segregation, was named for Sen. Charles Sumner, who fought to abolish slavery. Mildred Green Elementary School in Southeast was named after Suggs's principal when Suggs was a student at Raymond Elementary in Northwest. Alice Deal Junior High in Northwest was named after a woman who advocated for adolescents to go to schools according to their age groups. Frank Ballou Senior High School in Southeast was named after the longest-serving superintendent of schools, who was in office from 1920 to 1944.