Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

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The Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site preserves the residence, property, and heritage of civil rights activist Maggie Lena Walker. This house was built in 1883 and is located at 110½ E. Leigh Street in the Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. The Walker family owned the home until 1979, when it was purchased by the National Park Service.[1]

Maggie Lena Walker (1867-1934), the daughter of a former slave mother and a Northern abolitionists father, founded the successful St. Luke Penney Savings Bank and became the first African-American woman to established and led the Bank of America. Walker was the leader of the Richmond community and moved to the Jackson Ward community in 1904.[2]

Background

Maggie Lena Mitchell was born on July 15, 1864 in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother was a slave and assistant cook in Elizabeth Van Lew's Church Hill Mansion. Later, her parents moved the family to the alley between Broad and Marshall streets, where Maggie and her brother Johnnie grew up. After his father's death in 1876, Maggie's mother supported the family by working as a laundress, and the young Maggie helped by providing clean clothes.[1]

In 1903, Maggie Lena Walker founded a bank and hired black women to run the bank. Walker lived in the remote south, founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, and devoted his life to the development of African Americans. As the president of the only black women’s bank in the United States, she advocates encouraging black professional women and girls by creating job opportunities, funding educational institutions, and participating in well-known civil rights organizations.[3]

From 1903 until her death in 1934, Maggie L. Walker used her bank, the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, to provide women with economic power and help strengthen the country. The emerging black middle class in Smithson. Walker's role as a woman created the bank and served as the president, which was very rare at the time and was completely unique in the black community.[4]

Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site is a house, where Walker lived with her large family from 1905 until her death in 1934 and became a national historic site in 1978. The National Park Service keeps it as a fully equipped house museum since 1985. The museum’s collection is very comprehensive, most of which were donated directly by Walker’s descendants in 1979, including personal belongings, furniture and art, and extremely Important Maggie Walker household paper. These archives contain rare photos, as well as Walker's speeches, letters, diaries and business documents.[5]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Maggie Lena Walker. National Park Service December 4, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  2. Walker, Maggie Lena, House. National Historic Landmark Program, Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  3. Maggie Lena Walker, 1864-1934. National Museum of American History. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  4. Early Women In Banking. National Park Service November 15, 2019. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  5. Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, National Park Service. Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved January 31, 2021.