It’s keeping the “Washington” part of the equation, but the city’s convention center is getting a new name.
On Nov. 5, the center will be rechristened the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, after the city’s first elected mayor, in a ceremony with elected officials and business leaders.
The D.C. Council approved the change in March.
Washington was a Howard University graduate, known for his activism over affordable housing. He was appointed mayor by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, a position he turned down until Johnson let him have authority over the city’s fire and police forces, according to Mary Burke Washington, his wife.
Washington led the city through the race riots of 1968 and was later elected by his constituents.
“Naming the center after him says something not about federal Washington but about the city of Washington and the people who have lived here and loved D.C.,” said Donna Wells, prints and photographs librarian of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard, which houses Washington’s archives.
The convention center was the site of Washington’s last public appearance, at a benefit dinner for the city’s historical association in spring 2003, Mary Burke Washington said Monday. Her husband was suffering from gallstones during the ceremony and went straight to the hospital from the event.
“People didn’t have the slightest idea, because he was so gracious to all the people who greeted him during the dinner,” she said.
The Washington Convention Center Authority has redone the building’s logo and is slowly changing its printed materials to reflect it, according to spokeswoman Lana Ostrander.
The group is accepting requests for proposals to change the signage of the building, which was due for an upgrade, she added.
