We gratefully acknowledge the Native peoples on whose ancestral homelands we gather, as well as the diverse and vibrant Native Communities who make their home here today.
Planet Word’s home is in the Franklin School in our nation’s capital. Originally opened in 1869 and completely rehabilitated between 2018 and 2020, the 50,000-square-foot, five-story historic icon is located on Franklin Square at 13th & K streets in Northwest Washington, D.C.
Renowned architect Adolf Cluss designed the Franklin School as the flagship of eight modern urban public school buildings in Washington, D.C. The building served as a model for the modern public school system and offered free education to as many as 900 white boys and girls per year (D.C. schools were segregated at this time).
The Franklin School was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996. International architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle was hired by the museum’s founder, Ann B. Friedman, to rehabilitate and restore the building to its original “Modern Renaissance” glory.
In 1880, inventor Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful transmission of a “photophone” message from the rooftop of the Franklin School to his lab on L Street. The photophone was a vital precursor to today’s wireless and fiber-optic communications, and Bell considered it his most important invention.
