YWCA, Phillis Wheatley Branch | |
Location | 2709 Locust St., St. Louis, Missouri |
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Coordinates | 38°38′4″N90°12′59″W / 38.63444°N 90.21639°W Coordinates: 38°38′4″N90°12′59″W / 38.63444°N 90.21639°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1927 |
Architect | LaBeaume & Klein |
Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 84002694 [1] |
Added to NRHP | July 24, 1984 |
The YWCA, Phillis Wheatley Branch in St. Louis, Missouri is a building dating from 1927. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. [1]
The branch was founded in 1911 and named for Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American poet. It was only the fifth YWCA for African-Americans.
The YWCA was a center of intellectual life in the Mill Creek Valley neighborhood. The Fisk Jubilee Singers performed at Wheatley in 1916, and W.E.B. Du Bois gave a lecture in 1922. Maya Angelou, Mary McLeod Bethune and Butterfly McQueen all visited or stayed in the YWCA's hotel rooms. [2]
The building was constructed in 1927 for the St. Louis Women's Christian Association, also known as the Women's Christian Home, which was first organized in 1868. In 1941 they sold the building to the YWCA. [3]
Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly was the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America. She was enslaved by the Wheatley family of Boston. After she learned to read and write, they encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent.
Florissant is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, within Greater St. Louis. It is a middle class, second-ring northern suburb of St. Louis. Based on 2019 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a total population of 50,952, making it the 13th-largest city in Missouri and the largest municipality in St. Louis County.
Wheatley Place is a neighborhood in south Dallas, Texas, that is designated as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and as a somewhat smaller Dallas Landmark District by the city. Included among the buildings that compose the historic district is the Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House, a museum that was the former home of Dallas civil rights pioneer, Juanita Craft. The house is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and is included within the NRHP district but not the municipal landmark district.
Dorothy Irene Height was an African American civil rights and women's rights activist. She focused on the issues of African American women, including unemployment, illiteracy, and voter awareness. Height is credited as the first leader in the civil rights movement to recognize inequality for women and African Americans as problems that should be considered as a whole. She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years.
Jane Edna Hunter, an African-American social worker, was born near Pendleton, South Carolina. In 1911 she established the Working Girls Association in Cleveland, Ohio, which later became the Phillis Wheatley Association of Cleveland.
The Phyllis Wheatley YWCA is a Young Women's Christian Association building in Washington, D.C., that was designed by architects Shroeder & Parish and was built in 1920. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The National Cash Register Building, commonly referred to as the St. Johns Theater & Pub, was a building that was first erected in St. Louis, Missouri, for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 and then moved to Portland, Oregon, the next year for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. It was moved a third and final time to the suburb of St. Johns, Oregon, which is now a part of Portland. It was given to the St. Johns Congregational Society by the NCR Corporation. It now houses a McMenamins theater and pub.
The Boston Women's Heritage Trail is a series of walking tours in Boston, Massachusetts, leading past sites important to Boston women's history. The tours wind through several neighborhoods, including the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, commemorating women such as Abigail Adams, Amelia Earhart, and Phillis Wheatley. The guidebook includes seven walks and introduces more than 200 Boston women.
Mary Mossell Griffin was an American writer, clubwoman, and suffragist based in Philadelphia.
Mary Frances Gunner was an American playwright and community leader based in Brooklyn, New York.
Drusilla Elizabeth Tandy Nixon was a community activist and music educator.
The YWCA of Duluth is a former YWCA building in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. It was built in 1908 to provide programs and activities for Duluth's young, single women. It contained a gymnasium, swimming pool, cafeteria, meeting rooms, and apartments. In addition to the organization's usual suite of athletics, Bible study, and employment assistance, the YWCA of Duluth catered to the city's large foreign-born population with English and citizenship classes. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011 for its local significance in the theme of social history. It was nominated for its role in local civic development through the YWCA's social welfare efforts.
Emma S. Connor Ransom was an American educator and clubwoman, active in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and the YWCA.
The Phillis Wheatley Clubs are women's clubs created by African Americans starting in the late 1800s. The first club was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1895. Some clubs are still active. The purpose of Phillis Wheatley Clubs varied from area to area, although most were involved in community and personal improvement. Some clubs helped in desegregation and voting rights efforts. The clubs were named after the poet Phillis Wheatley.
Arsania M. Williams was an American educator and clubwoman based in St. Louis, Missouri. She taught for over fifty years in segregated schools, and was president of the Missouri State Association of Negro Teachers, the Missouri Association of Colored Women, and the St. Louis Association of Colored Women. She held national leadership roles in the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).
Amanda Gray Hilyer was an African American entrepreneur, pharmacist, civic worker, and civil rights activist. She was the first black woman to own and operate a pharmacy in Washington D.C.