Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Cultural Landscape

A horse‑drawn carriage makes its way up the hill towards the Douglass home at Cedar Hill, c. 1890.
Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS DC-97)

Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Cultural Landscape

The National Park Service acquired the property in 1962, and it was officially designated the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in 1988. The period of significance recognized in the National Register Nomination is 1877-1895, the period of Douglass’s occupancy. The site preserves the landscape and home of Frederick Douglass.

Between 1855 and 1859, a brick structure that formed the original part of the Douglass house was built and inhabited by John W. Van Hook. Van Hook was forced to sell his property in 1873 after a financial panic resulted in the failure of the Union Land Company.

In 1877, in defiance of laws prohibiting the purchase of property in the area by African Americans, Douglass bought the 9.5-acre holding from Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company. Then, in 1878, Douglass purchased an additional 5.23 acres and constructed a cistern, well, carriage house, barn, privy, chicken coop, corn crib, and living quarters for guests or workers. Douglass improved outdoor walkways and stairs and planted trees, shrubs, and edibles. After the death of his first wife, Anna Murray, in August of 1882, Douglass married Helen Pitts.

Frederick Douglass lived in this house from 1877 until his death in 1895.
NPS

From his own words and from the recollections of those who knew him, Douglass appears to have had a great reverence for the natural world. He renamed Van Hook’s property “Cedar Hill” in recognition of the abundance of cedar trees on the property and created a “gentleman’s farm.” Despite its proximity to an urban area, the property still displays characteristics of a cottage in natural surroundings.

The property of Frederick Douglass, on a prominent hill in the area formerly known as Uniontown, was valued for its broad views to Washington, the river, and surrounding hills. NPS

Eleven years later, on February 20, 1895, Douglass died of a stroke at Cedar Hill. In 1900, at Helen Pitts Douglass’s request, Congress chartered the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association (FDMHA), to whom Mrs. Douglass bequeathed the house. In 1916, the FDMHA appealed to the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACWC) for assistance in preserving the Douglass home. The NACWC agreed to help, and the mortgage was paid off by 1918.