Woodlawn Cemetery–Burial Place of Madam Walker–Designated National Historic Landmark
June 30, 2011: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that The Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx–where entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker and her Harlem Renaissance arts patron daughter, A’Lelia Walker, are buried–has been designated a National Historic Landmark, the highest recognition accorded to the nation’s most historically significant properties.
There are two other National Historic Landmarks associated with the legacy of the Walker women: The Madam Walker Theatre Center, a cultural arts organization in Indianapolis, and Villa Lewaro, the home Madam Walker built in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York in 1918. Villa Lewaro was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The Walker Theatre was added to the National Register in 1991.
Madam Walker died on May 25, 1919 at Villa Lewaro, where her funeral was held on May 30. Among the pallbearers were New York Age publisher Fred Moore, composer J. Rosamond Johnson, and Alpha Phi Alpha founder Vertner Tandy, Villa Lewaro’s architect.
A’Lelia Walker,who held a private ceremony for her mother at Woodlawn on June 3, 1919, was herself buried there in August 1931. (more…)
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