Recorder of Deeds Building Tour (Black History Month) February 24, 2006

Sixth Annual DC Recorder of Deeds Building Open Houses and Free Guided Tours Honor 125th Anniversary of Appointment of Frederick Douglass as the First Black DC Recorder of Deeds.

The District of Columbia Recorder of Deeds Building, completed in 1942, features seven WPA-era Black history murals (depicting African
American heroes including Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Crispus Attucks, Matthew Henson, and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment) and other artwork, in a building designed to house the only District agency led and staffed almost exclusively by African Americans for 125 years.

Come visit the ROD Building and hear about the history of past recorders of deeds, including Frederick Douglass (the first Black recorder of deeds, appointed by President James A. Garfield in 1881) and Blanche K. Bruce, the work of such prominent African American artists as William E. Scott and Selma Burke, and see the building's intact 1940s decor, which was almost lost to demolition in 2001.