The Franklin School Coalition
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From 2006 until final plans were announced in 2017, The Franklin School Coalition -- consisting of Joseph Browne, William Gilcher, Charles Cassell, Lucinda Janke, Bill Brown, Kesh Ladduwahetty, Terry Lynch and others -- kept pressure on the D.C. Government to ensure the iconic and historic Franklin School was preserved and protected from commercial development. The Coalition was supportive of most any proposal that would ensure the building served educational and/or cultural purposes. Finally, in 2017, Philanthropist Ann Friedman spearheaded a successful effort to create The Planet Word Museum dedicated to language and linguistics. The Planet Word Museum opened (virtually) during the pandemic of 2020 but has now opened to visitors via its K Street entrance at the corner of 13th & K Street, N.W. Home - Planet Word Museum and from the Current Papers in 2010... and an update from 2017 as Planet Word museum proceeds.
During the intervening years, Cindy and Kesh developed a eight-panel exhibit to document and promote the history of the Franklin School which later appeared on display at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. in the Carnegie Library, the Sumner School Museum and Archives and the John A. Wilson (District) Building. Those panels are reproduced below so that even as the Franklin School has now been "saved" and repurposed as Planet Word with its own exhibit dedicated to the building's history and its contribution to the District of Columbia's educational heritage, the AOI wants to ensure that the research and effort that both Cindy and Kesh embarked upon wasn't lost to some storeroom or dustbin of history...
During the intervening years, Cindy and Kesh developed a eight-panel exhibit to document and promote the history of the Franklin School which later appeared on display at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. in the Carnegie Library, the Sumner School Museum and Archives and the John A. Wilson (District) Building. Those panels are reproduced below so that even as the Franklin School has now been "saved" and repurposed as Planet Word with its own exhibit dedicated to the building's history and its contribution to the District of Columbia's educational heritage, the AOI wants to ensure that the research and effort that both Cindy and Kesh embarked upon wasn't lost to some storeroom or dustbin of history...