A'Lelia Walker (1885–1931) was a wealthy socialite born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. She attended Knoxville College before joining her mother’s haircare company, the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company. The company was incredibly successful; her mother had become known as the first self-made African-American millionaire. A’Lelia managed the Pittsburgh branch and oversaw Lelia College, the school of cosmetology.

Walker became president of the business in 1919, after her mother’s death, but quickly lost interest and became more involved in the social scene of 1920s Harlem, entertaining wealthy friends and prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance such as Zora Neale Hurston. They say she spent most of her inheritance on these lavish parties. The salon was held in Villa Lewaro, a beautiful white house built in 1917 by Walker’s mother. It was located in Irvington in Westchester County, or the “Hudson Riviera”, a suburban town that housed the wealthiest families of the time. Prominent visitors included Alberta Hunter, Florence Mills, Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. Du Bois, Muriel Draper, Nora Holt, Witter Bynner, Andy Razaf, Taylor Gordon, Paul Robeson, Countee Cullen, Carl Van Vechten, and Langston Hughes. Hughes nicknamed her “the joy goddess” and she was immortalized in various novels. Famous entertainers, artists, civil rights leaders, bankers and businessmen of all racial background were also part of the scene.

In 1927, Walker opened her famous salon “The Dark Tower”, initially named the Walker Studio, in a converted floor of her Harlem townhouse at 108-110 West 136th Street near Lenox Avenue (now Malcolm X Boulevard); it was intended as a space and tearoom to entertain and support Harlem and Greenwich Village writers, poets, and artists. She hired musicians, photographers, modistes, architects, and caterers to entertain her guest at dinners, dances and recitals. It was remodeled with Neo-Georgian brick and a limestone facade. The Austrian designer Paul Frankl created the interior. His “Skyscraper” bookcase became the logo for the event invitations. The ground floor of the villa was dedicated to the Walker Hair Parlor, the basement was the Lelia College of Beauty Culture. Most events were crowded by hundreds, if you did not arrive early, there was no way of getting in.

Her salons fostered a safe space for the queer community. Guests could express their sexuality freely, a rarity at the time. She also invited theater groups to rehearse in her home, and filmmakers to shoot movies at her estate at no charge. Artist could use her home when needed at no charge, but the Walker Studio was rented for events, such as wedding receptions, rehearsals for theater companies, fraternity and sorority functions, and art shows. Walker herself was an impressive person, wearing high fashion, custom-made shoes, diamonds, and signature turban, while carrying a riding crop. She often sat for portrait photographers like Berenice Abbott.

During the Great Depression, her company’s earnings fell sharply, and she was forced to sell much of her antique and art collection. “The Dark Tower” seized to exist as an actual event when Walker passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1931, but no doubt it lives on in the imagination of anyone studying the Harlem Renaissance. Over 11,000 people attended a viewing of A’Leila Walker’s casket in a Harlem funeral home.


SOURCES
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/09/22/436344078/remembering-alelia-walker-who-made-a-ritzy-space-for-harlems-queer-black-artists
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/walker-alelia-1885-1931
http://www.aleliabundles.com/2013/11/23/writing-biography-an-update-on-the-joy-goddess-of-harlem/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%27Lelia_Walker#Arts_patron
https://savingplaces.org/stories/how-alelia-walker-and-the-dark-tower-shaped-the-harlem-renaissance#.WlaN9yPMy8U