The Force School on Massachusetts Avenue
Alma Mater to Quentin Roosevelt and Charles Lindbergh
Every neighborhood needs a school, and what was once referred to as the “Fashionable West End“ (now the Dupont Circle area) was no exception. In 1880, the twelve-room Force Elementary School was erected on the south side of Massachusetts Avenue between 17th and 18th Streets and was named for renowned soldier, journalist, politician, and book collector Peter Force. Its distinguished alumni included the son of a president Theodore Roosevelt and aviator Charles Lindbergh.
The school was named for Peter Force. A descendant of French Huguenots, Force was born near the Passaic Falls in New Jersey in 1790 and grew up in New Paltz in Ulster County, New York, and afterward moved to New York City and learned the printing trade.
