Subsequently, the D.C. government converted the structure into a Civil Defense office and constructed antenna towers on its grounds.

[4] After sitting abandoned for several decades, preservation groups succeeded in granting the structure historic designation in 2009 ahead of a planned renovation.

[3] Reno was a subdivision of property that included a Civil War fort, in what was at the time the rural unincorporated areas of the District of Columbia.

As suburbs around DC grew, an African American community developed from a few families and the Rock Creek Baptist Church into a sizable neighborhood, with many school-aged children.

[5] In 1902, the United States Senate passed an appropriation to purchase the building's site, on the report that 83 of 112 anticipated pupils lived in Reno.