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Architecture

Who designed what became known as a historic mansion for Madam C. J. Walker?

In 1908 Vertner W. Tandy Sr. (1885–1949) became the first black architect registered in New York State. Tandy is also known as a founder of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at Cornell University. In 1909 he established a partnership with architect George Washington Foster that lasted until 1915. Through the partnership the men received several significant commissions, including St. Philips Episcopal Church and its Queen Anne-style parish house (1910–11) and the Harlem townhouse of black hair-care magnate Madam C. J. Walker. Later, after the partnership ended, in 1917 he designed the country mansion Villa Lewaro, in Irvington-on-Hudson, for Madame Walker. His other works include Small’s Paradise, the Harlem Elks Lodge, and, in the 1940s, the Abraham Lincoln Houses in the Bronx.



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