Madam C.J. Walker Building in Indianapolis
Walker Company sales began to suffer in 1929, with the beginning of the Great Depression. Increased expenses associated with a new million dollar headquarters and manufacturing facility opened in late 1927 in Indianapolis, Indiana, placed additional financial pressure on the operation. Today the building is known as the Madam Walker Theatre Center and is a National Historic Landmark.
Mae Walker was president of the company from 1931 until her death in 1945. Mae's daughter, A'Lelia Mae Perry Bundles (1928–1976), succeeded her mother as president of the company. A'Lelia Mae Perry Bundles's daughter, A'Lelia Bundles, (1952- ) is an author and journalist as well as Madam Walker's biographer.
The Madam C. J. Walker Company moved from the building in 1985 and the trustees of the Walker estate transferred the building to a non-profit group called the Madam Walker Urban Life Center. Today the building houses a cultural arts organization, is the anchor of the Indiana Avenue Cultural District and is known as the Madame Walker Theatre Center. Its current president is Dr. Terry Whitt Bailey.
Read more about this topic: A'Lelia Walker
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And let the world slip. We shall ne’er be younger.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account.”
—Alice Walker (b. 1944)
“Culture is a sham if it is only a sort of Gothic front put on an iron building—like Tower Bridge—or a classical front put on a steel frame—like the Daily Telegraph building in Fleet Street. Culture, if it is to be a real thing and a holy thing, must be the product of what we actually do for a living—not something added, like sugar on a pill.”
—Eric Gill (1882–1940)