True Reformer Building, 1200 U Street Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC

Significance: The True Reformer Building was probably the first building in the United States to have gone through all of the design, financing,and construction processes using only the talents and resources of the black community. It was designed by John A. Lankford, the first twentieth century black professional architect in the District of Columbia. The building itself is representative of turn-of-the-century fraternal mutual aid organizations which have been described by the historian August Meier [in his Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915: Racial Ideologies in the Age of Booker T. Washington (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1963), p. 137] as second only to churches as important centers for racial self-help and cooperation in that racially difficult era. The dignified four story building also represents the Afro-American's contribution to monumental architecture at the time public and private Washington was being revitalized as a result of the McMillan Commission proposals.
Survey number: HABS DC-362
Building/structure dates: ca. 1903 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1960 Subsequent Work
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 88003063