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Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • E5

Publication:
Asbury Park Pressi
Location:
Asbury Park, New Jersey
Issue Date:
Page:
E5
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

APP.COM SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2018 5E A release date for the series has yet to be announced by In 1918, at age 50, Walker moved into her newly built home a 34-room, mansion on North Broadway in Irvington. De- signed by Vertner Tandy, the Afri- can-American architect registered in New York, the mansion is estimated to have cost $250,000. Dubbed the estate, less than miles from John D. Rocke- Kykuit and about a mile from Jay Lyndhurst, was meant to in- spire others, said Bundles, a former deputy bureau chief of ABC News in Washington. While other tycoons who owned neighboring estates along the Hudson River situated their mansion to maxi- mize the views of the river, Walker wanted her white Italianate villa house and its red-tiled roof to be seen from the main thoroughfare.

fact that she built her house on North Broadway says a lot. She wanted people to be able to see said Bundles. wanted people to stop saying that black people cannot A Nov. 4, 1917 article in The New York Times under the headline Negro Suburban mentioned the reactions of villagers, who upon spotting Walker in her powered motor realized that she was the owner of the dwelling. they exclaimed.

woman of her race could such a the newspaper reported. know she said she wanted this house to be an inspiration to young black children, that she wanted them to see what was possible, what somebody could achieve in a said Bundles she really was that generation after slavery and she was determined not only to have suc- cess for herself but to open the door for other people. The house for her was a symbol of The mansion was designated a Na- tional Historic Landmark in 1976 for its architectural and in 2014 was designated a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preserva- tion.The house, in private hands since 1993, was recently sold. the washroom to the life is a compelling story, made for the screen. Born Sarah Breedlove in Delta, Loui- siana, in 1867, the daughter of share- croppers, she was the child in her family to be free-born.

After being mar- ried at 14 and widowed by 20, Walker, by now a mother of a 2-year-old daughter, moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where her brothers were established as barbers. It was from them that she received early lessons in treating the scalp. She herself had been contending with hair falling out and scalp infections. After years of working as a washerwoman for wealthy white families, she decided to supplement her income by working as a sales agent in 1904 for Annie Malone, an African-American businesswoman sell- ing hair-care products.

The following year, she moved to Denver with her daughter and con- tinued to sell products there while work- ing as a cook and a laundress. Within a year, Walker left the company after a disagreement with Malone and decided to develop her own line of products. In 1906, she married Charles Walker, a newspaper sales agent who was well- versed in marketing. She adopted the name Madam C.J. Walker as she started selling Wonderful Hair Grow- and vegetable shampoo in Denver and the surrounding area.

had a really small black population, so she knew she would have to move to grow her said Bun- dles. Two years later, the couple moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where they opened a beauty parlor and established Lelia College to train in the Walker was a master mar- keter. But her brilliance was in taking it to another level by training women, by traveling, by making very motivational speeches and by providing independent income for women who otherwise would have to be maids and sharecrop- said Bundles. While her daughter Lelia (she would change her name to in the ran the operations from Pittsburgh, Walker set up a factory in Indianapolis and, in 1910, established the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company.

The business proved to be wildly successful, with Walker traveling throughout the country and to Caribbean nations to grow her business. Around this time, she also began making her mark in philanthropy, start- ing with a $1,000 check to a local YMCA for black men. Her as a community and civil rights activist grew as she helped fund a national anti-lynching initiative, gave money to the Tuskegee Institute and to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. By 1913, her daughter persuaded her mother to establish an and beauty salon in Harlem. was a very sophisticated place and it was becoming the mecca for Afri- can-American politics and said Bundles.

was feeling a little bored in Pittsburgh and Harlem was much more Walker built a large town house at 136th Street in 1915, complete with a beauty parlor and a beauty school. ing in New York was such a pivotal point for them. It raised their said Bundles. was like being on Rodeo drive. If you were a big brand, you had to be in New The house would also become a gath- ering place for political activists and the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, in- cluding W.E.B.

Du Bois and Langston Hughes. The following year, she hired Tandy who had designed her Harlem town- home, to build her of homes in Irvington. A of home The white stucco house with a red terracotta roof was named Villa Lewaro for daughter, Walker Robinson, as an anagram from two let- ters of each name. Walker told her friend Ida B. Wells, the journalist and anti-lynching activ- ist, that after working so hard all her life, she wanted a place to relax and garden and entertain her friends.

A gathering to celebrate the opening of Villa Lewaro honored Emmett Scott, then the special assistant to the U. S. Secretary of War in Charge of Negro Af- fairs and the highest-ranking African American in the federal government. But Walker enjoy the house for long. She died the following year.

Her daughter, who inherited the house, continued the tradition of host- ing events, until her death in 1931. It was then bequeathed to the NAACP as per wishes for the estate to left to some cause that will be to the race, a sort of The NAACP, facing dire straits during the Depression, to maintain the property and sold it almost immediately. It changed hands a few times, including serving as a con- valescent home for a time. In 1993, Harold E. Doley founder of Doley Securities, the oldest African- American owned investment banking in the nation, and his wife, Helena, purchased and restored the property.

has been an inspiration for said Helena Doley. had every pos- sible disadvantage, yet she was able to help so After 25 years of ownership, the Do- leys sold the property to a private buyer last month. Before the sale, the couple, working with the National Trust, secured a his- toric preservation easement for the es- tate last December to ensure the proper- architectural integrity would be preserved. C.J. Villa Lewaro is more than just an irreplaceable land- said Brent Leggs, Director of the National African American Cul- tural Heritage Action Fund.

Lewa- ro is a living monument to Madam Walk- proud legacy, and embodies the op- timism and perseverance of American Throughout her time at Villa Lewaro, Helena Doley said she has felt guided by Madam spirit. said she promoted herself from the washroom to the said Helena Doley. legacy, I think, is one of not feeling that situations we are born into who we Over the years, the Doleys did a lot to promote vision by organizing various galas and for nonprof- its and arts groups. They opened their home to the Westchester Philharmonic and were the hosts of a for the United Negro College Fund, among many other events. For Bundles, who once stayed as an overnight guest at the house, the Doleys have done much to honor legacy.

they hosted a for the Westchester Philharmonic, I stayed overnight in said Bundles. tent had been set up on the lawn for dinner and jazz was playing. The Doleys, who are from New Orleans, had all this great food coming up and wafting through the house. That was the moment I felt that the house had really come back to life. That it was the entertainment space, the convening space that Madam Walker had intended it to Helena Doley believes spirit of entrepreneurship should inspire women for generations to come.

In fact, Sundial Brands, a manufac- turer of skincare and hair care products for people of color, launched a new hair care line called the C.J. Walker Beauty in 2016, sold exclusive- ly at Sephora. of the newsletters to her sales agents on how to market the product seasonally and how to present oneself are marketing techniques we use said Doley. was a wom- an ahead of her Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is the new audience strategist and a member of the Editorial Board for The Journal part of the USA Today Network. Walker Continued from Page 1E Villa Lewaro was estate.

HISTORIC NEW BY DAVID BOHL Villa Lewaro was near estate. HISTORIC NEW BY DAVID BOHL Villa Lewaro is a Historic Landmark. HISTORIC NEW BY DAVID BOHL LeBron James, left, and Octavia Spencer will serve as executive producers for an upcoming Netflix series based on the life of Indianapolis entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker. Spencer will star in the series.

GETTY IMAGES Bundles COURTESY BUNDLES.

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Pages Available:
2,392,497
Years Available:
1887-2024