Zalmon Richards House

One of the founders of the National Education Association (NEA), Zalmon Richards, lived in this house from 1882 until his death in 1899. He served as the NEA's first president and in that role laid the foundation for the organization's early development. It is now the largest labor union in the country. Richards also led the effort to get Congress to pass legislation that created the Office of Education, the predecessor of the Department of Education, in 1867. The house itself, which remains a private residence today, is a small but elegant Victorian home erected 1873. It features a mansard roof, three-sided wooden bays with arched windows and decorative brackets, and an arched main entrance. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark.

Zalmon Richards was born in Massachusetts in 1811. He began is career in education when he became a teacher at a small country school at the age of 17. He apparently did not receive much formal education himself growing up but did take courses at Southampton Academy and then attended Williams College. He graduated in 1836 and became the principal at Cunningham Academy in Massachusetts. A few years later he became the principal at an academy in Stillwater, New York. During his time in Stillwater he organized teachers' institutes in New York and Vermont.

Richards arrived in Washington D.C. in 1849 to become principal of the preparatory department of Columbia College where he established the Columbia Teachers' Association. Three years later he founded a private school called the Union Academy. In 1857, he was one of the founders of the National Education Association, which was the National Teachers' Association in 1870. The U.S. Treasury Department appointed him to a clerical position in 1861 but was shortly transferred to the Bureau of Statistics where he collected data of schools around the country and used this information to lobby Congress to pass the the act in 1867 that created the Office of Education. He remained at the Office until 1869 when he became the first superintendent of Washington's public schools.

Richards remained involved with the NEA for the rest of his life. He also lectured about education, wrote many papers and reports, and published "Teachers' Manual" for primary school teachers in 1880 and wrote "The Natural Arithmetic" in 1885. After he moved into the house, he taught in one of the rooms to support himself. He died on November 1, 1899 at the age of 88.

Schroer, Blanche Higgins. "Zalmon Richards House." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. October 15, 1966. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/66000866_text.

"Zalmon Richards House." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. October 15, 1966. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/66000866_text.