It opened as John Eaton Public School # 160 at 3301 Lowell Street NW on October 24, 1910.

The interior followed the standard Adolf Cluss design long used by DC public schools, and the exterior of red brick and yellow brick trim was designed by architect Appleton P. Clark, Jr.

It was named for recently deceased General John Eaton, a Union Army veteran who founded some 74 schools for freedmen and was later a college president.

Within less than a decade, the school was overcrowded, prompting the construction of an addition in 1922 designed by Arthur B. Heaton.

[1] The Cleveland Park branch of the District of Columbia Public Library began as a single room in the Eaton School in 1910.