How the Schools of Capitol Hill Got their Names – Tyler Elementary

photo by Ryan Cree

There’s no great mystery on how John Tyler Elementary got it’s name; long standing practice in DC schools was to name them after Presidents. Built in 1890, the original Tyler building was the eight room schoolhouse we’ve seen at Brent, Maury (still standing), Ludlow-Taylor, etc. It originally faced 11th Street, SE, between G and I, on space that is now occupied by the school playground. With schools bulging during and after the Second World War, a new Tyler was built in its current location in 1949, making the old building’s 1950 demolition one of the first on the Hill. A 1967 addition gave the school room for 1,182 students, although this was reduced to 866 when mandated class size was dropped from 30:1 to 24:1. Like many schools, it was originally a segregated white school that was shifted over as it aged and demographics shifted.

It is perhaps ironic that a school which for much of its existence was solely for African Americans would be named after a slave owner, but there you go. John Tyler is barely remembered today, generally only as the second half of “Tippecanoe and Tyler too!”, but he had a fascinating and trend-setting presidency. Tyler was the first Vice president to assume the presidency, a point with some Constitutional vagary. Some opposition members, including John Quincy Adams, insisted that he remain Vice president, or be referred to as “Acting President.” Tyler returned all such correspondence addressed as such unopened, and the precedent stuck.

And we know that President Tyler spent some time in Capitol Hill, not far from Tyler Elementary. Tyler had been aboard the USS Princeton, the US’s first screw propeller warship, to witness the Navy showing off a couple of new weapons. Joining him at the Washington Navy Yard was Washington’s finest, including Dolley Madison, Sen. Thomas Hart Benton, and numerous others. After successfully firing off cannons named the Oregon and the Peacemaker, the guests retired below to enjoy some refreshments. Following the formal luncheon, the guests returned to the main deck to witness a final volley in honor of George Washington as the vessel passed Mount Vernon. Fortunately for Tyler, he remained below for a minute and missed the explosion of the poorly named and constructed Peacemaker. Less fortunate would be Secretary of State Abel Usher, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer, and seven others.

The dead would be laid to rest in Congressional Cemetery, where Secretary Usher remains. President Tyler attended the funeral, but didn’t have an easy time of it. During the return trip on Pennsylvania Avenue, his horses bolted near the Capitol, and the President and his son were in some danger until a “colored man” saved his bacon about a mile later. The incident wouldn’t be all bad for the President; he won over his second wife, Julia Gardner, by consoling her upon the death of her father, Rep. John Gardner of NY.

John Tyler’s second son (he would have thirteen children), John Tyler, Jr. would become a Hill resident as well. After serving in the Mexican War, John Jr. would be a Colonel in the Confederacy during the Civil War. He found work in various government jobs and lived at 1217 B Street (now Independence Ave). Somewhat petulantly, he complained that the government made no provisions for the children of Presidents, saying his “greatest misfortune is that I am the son of a President”. Hard times.

Believe it or not, as of last year, President Tyler still has two living grandsons. I saw one about ten years ago puttering around the family home in Virgina, Sherwood Forest.

Finally, if you want to remember President Tyler in a way somewhat more meaningful than watching a cannon explode, Tyler Elementary will be holding their school auction at Eastern Market next weekend, entitled the Alchemy of Great Taste.