U Street Visitor Center Offers Glimpse of D.C. History
WASHINGTON - Cultural Tourism D.C. and Ben’s Chili Bowl have teamed up to bring a visitor’s center to Northwest’s U Street.
In the days of segregation, U Street NW was known as the ‘black Broadway.’ Today, the stretch of street is a different world with new development, diversity, and as of Friday morning - a visitor’s center.
“There are amenities, shops, nightlife - everything is here,” said Linda Donovan Harper with Cultural Tourism D.C.
Tourism officials estimate up to four million people visit D.C. each year and most of them are either friends or family of local residents.
“…If we really want to reach that group of tourists we need to have the materials in the neighborhoods where the people have access to them,” said Donovan Harper added.
Ben’s Chili Bowl alone attracts bus loads of tourists every week.
Donovan Harper says tourism officials would “like for them [visitors] to have a real broad experience” outside the Federal Government aspect of the nation’s capital. They say the U Street visitor’s center “is a great place to start.”
That’s because the center focuses on the history of the neighborhood.
Harry Jones works with the African American Civil War Museum. “So this is the farmland of the culture of the jazz of Langston Hughes…before Harlem there was U Street.”
The tourism group has also launched a corresponding audio tour. Visitors can trace U Street’s roots from slavery in the 1800s through the civil rights era up to the 2008 election.
“It’s got so much rich history. It’s really an amazing street for African Americans in this country,” said Nizam Ali with Ben’s Chili Bowl.
Sadly, U Street icon Ben Ali passed away before all of this came together. For his son, Nizam, the center’s opening was bittersweet.
“I know he’s smiling down on us right now, and it’s really wonderful,” said Nizam.
The new visitors center is located right next to Ben’s Chili Bowl. Nizam said it’s a 90-year-old building that at one point served as a popular jazz club.
For more information, go to culturaltourismdc.org and click on tours and trails.
