Renovation completed on home of Madam C.J. Walker, America's first black woman millionaire

Jet, August 14, 1995

The New York mansion of Madam C.J. Walker, America's first Black woman millionaire, has been restored to its former elegance with the recent completion of renovations on the estate.

A pioneer in the ethnic beauty aids market, Madam Walker made a fortune selling hair care products and cosmetics in the early 1900s. While she did not invent the straightening comb as is widely believed, Madam Walker helped popularize it with her own line of hair and scalp ointments and an array of skin salves that catapulted her from rags to riches.

Born in Delta, LA, in 1867, the hair care pioneer's real name was Sarah Breedlove. She was the daughter of ex-slaves Owen and Minerva Breedlove. As a youngster she dreamed of escaping hard manual labor for a better life.

In an effort to improve her lot, she married at 14 and soon had a daughter, A'Lelia. When her husband was killed and his body thrown in a river during a race riot, she was left to fend for herself and her young daughter.

Several years later, she married again. But her second husband died leaving her to eke out a living for her and her child.

With hopes of earning more money to take care of herself and her child, she headed North and eventually settled in St. Louis where she worked as a washerwoman. But one event around this time changed her life forever. She once said, "One night I had a dream and something told me to start in the business in which I am now engaged."

In 1905, she packed her possessions, including the hair and scalp ointment she had concocted, a straightening comb and her daughter and they moved to Denver. She tried her hair products on family and friends and before long she was going door-to-door selling her products. As business began to take off in Denver, she dreamed of going on the road to sell her hair and skin ointments in Chicago, Birmingham and Atlanta.

But before she left, she married local newspaperman Charles Joseph Walker and soon afterwards hit the road with an extensive line of Madam C.J. Walker beauty products.

The marriage ended in divorce, but the name Madam C.J. Walker stuck and was made famous around the world.

Madam C.J. Walker came to Indianapolis in 1910, and impressed with its central location and the cordial welcome she received, established the company headquarters there.

Within a year of setting up business in Indianapolis, Madam C.J. Walker's business was booming with 950 agents and raking in $1,000 a month.

Madam Walker and her daughter traveled often, and after witnessing the growth of Black culture in Harlem, decided that they would set up offices there as well in 1913. The businesswomen built a new home that also doubled as a beauty school to train hairdressers in the Walker System of Beauty.

With a thriving business, Madam Walker decided to have a country home built in 1916. Villa Lewaro, a 30-room mansion completed in 1918 in the affluent community of Irvington-on-Hudson, NY, was the culmination of Madam Walker's years of hard work and persistence to become independently wealthy.

However, she died on May 25, 1919 in the home at the age of 51. Her daughter, A'Lelia Walker Robinson, who was 33 at the time of her mother's death, inherited the $2 million Walker fortune.

A'Lelia Walker Robinson, who was the toast of Harlem social life, had no biological children, but adopted Mae Walker Perry, who had been featured in advertisements for Walker products.

Mae married Dr. Gordon Jackson of Chicago and they had one son, whose name was Walker. After a divorce, A'Lelia's daughter married again, this time to Marion Perry, who adopted Walker and changed his name to Walker Perry.

The couple had one daughter together, who they named A'Lelia Mae Perry. A'Lelia Mae Perry, who is now deceased, married F. Henry Bundles and they had three children, A'Lelia, Mark and Lance, who are the only surviving descendants of Madam C.J. Walker.

When Madam Walker died in her dream home, her daughter took over the lucrative business. Well known for her philanthropic deeds as well as her business acument, Madam C.J. Walker left Villa Lewaro to the NAACP. However, due to a depressed economy at the time, the civil rights group sold the residence for far less than it was worth to the Companions of the Forest, a White women's benevolent group that used it as a retirement home for its members. A number of years later, the home changed hands again after it was purchased by a White couple, businessman Ingo Appel and his wife Darlene Appel, a psychiatrist, who wanted to use the home as a residence for girls with eating disorders.

After 63 years, the residence was regained by Blacks when Harold W. Doley Jr., chairman of New Orleans-based Doley Securities, and his wife, Helena, acquired it in 1993, from the Appels after three years of haggling over the price.

While Doley told JET, "I prefer not to deal with the purchase price," knowledgeable sources put today's market value of Villa Lewaro in the area of $7.5 million to $8 million.

While the residence had fallen into disrepair over the years, Doley said breathing new life into the historic residence is "one of my most exciting ventures."