Washington Street Historic District

Along Washington Street in High Point, North Carolina, a linear row of commercial, church, school and house buildings built between about 1906 and 1963 forms the core of the city's African American community. Residents erected dwellings, offices, shops, restaurants, churches and entertainment venues here from the late nineteenth century, creating a mixed-use neighborhood that prospered through much of the twentieth century under segregation. The district contains a Gothic Revival First Baptist Church dating to 1907, the Queen Anne Dr. C. J. H. Gaylord House of 1906, and the William Penn High School complex with its 1930 two-story brick building and 1955 gymnasium. Its buildings range from Queen Anne and Craftsman houses to Art Moderne clinics and Modernist public and community structures. The district is significant for its cohesive collection of these buildings and their association with African American commerce, education and worship.