Newspaper Article

Streetscapes/The Walker Town House; The Grand Mansion of an Early Black Entrepreneur

Gray, Christopher

1994

Overview

The Georgian-style building -- in red brick with a bow front and delicate details -- could have been designed by any of New York's Social Register architects, but Madam Walker chose [Vertner Tandy]. Tandy studied at Tuskegee and Cornell and was the first black architect registered in New York State. In partnership with George W. Foster Jr., he had already designed St. Philip's Church on West 134th Street, the leading church for black Episcopalians. BY the time of her death in 1919 Madam Walker had become one of black Harlem's famous success stories. She owned two grand houses, oversaw a beauty empire and sponsored good works like six yearly scholarships at Tuskegee. Her daughter, A'Lelia Walker Robinson, continued the business (which still exists) and established a literary salon at the 136th Street house, where the walls were calligraphed with poems by Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes. Before A'Lelia Robinson's death in 1931 she leased 108 West 136th Street to the city, which established a series of health clinics in the house. A'Lelia's great-granddaughter, A'Lelia Bundles, of Alexandria, Va., has written a young-adult book (\"Madam [C. J. Walker]: Entrepreneur\"; Chelsea House, 1991) about Madam Walker and is working on a definitive biography.

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: Beckelman, Laurie / BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION / BLACKS (IN US) / GRAY, CHRISTOPHER / HAIR / HISTORIC BUILDINGS AND SITES / HISTORY / Robinson, Lelia Walker / Tandy, Vertner / Walker, C J / WALKER, MADAM C J (SARAH BREEDLOVE) (1867-1919)