Maggie Walker House

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The Maggie Lena Walker House I choose to visit the Maggie L. Walker House in downtown Richmond, Va. I picked this national historic site because she was a prominent figure in the African American community and she also defied modern rules of those times. Maggie L. Walker was an innovator and a very inspiring woman that spent most of her life trying to uplift the black community. She was a highly recognized and well respected woman of her era. The Maggie L. Walker House is the historical home where Maggie L. Walker, a pronoun African American woman, resided for most of her life. The house was built in 1882 and was owned by two prestigious doctors before Maggie purchased the house. Much of the original décor and furniture are still in the house from when she actually lived there. The Maggie Walker House became a historic site in 1978, about 47 years after her death. When the house was first built it had nine rooms and throughout the years the room count grew to twenty-eight with many renovations and extensions to the home. In the house lived three generations of the Maggie Walker family. Her husband, mother, house maid, her two living sons, their wives and children were most of the people whom resided in the house. It also is one of the only historic houses throughout Virginia with an elevator, which she used to get to her room on the second floor. It was installed because she had to use a wheelchair because of paralysis, which she developed later on in her life. Many famous African Americans visited and ate dinner in this house such as: Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary McCloud Bethune, and many others. The location of the house is also very historical. It is located three blocks from Broad Street which was the major business area in the city of Richmond. It is also was thought to be strategically bought by Mrs. Walker because it is located on the corner of
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