Real Estate
Rumor has it that iconic Harlem resident and fashion designer Stephen Burrows and a longtime business associate are starting a boutique hotel by renovating a historic space at 76 Edgecombe (at the corner of West 138th, and St. Nicholas Park) into a live in and bed & breakfast. They would each get a floor of the 4,611 square foot, corner building and have a chic B&B set up on one of the other floors. Records show that the property was sold in January 2010 for $1.436 million so it’s unclear what’s to happen in the future.Turns out the surrounding buildings have a very interesting history. The Harlem Renaisances A’Lelia Walker, the daughter of Madame CJ Walker, moved into the apartment house next door at 80 Edgecombe Avenue. According to David Levering Lewis, she moved there to escape media attention. “I do remember friends of my Great-grandmother often said she moved to 80 Edgecombe Ave, because she was downsizing from her mom’s mansion on 136th Street and Lenox Avenue (The Dark Tower – where the County Cullen Library currently sits), was trying not to sell their Croton-on-Hudson estate; Villa Lewaro,” Mr. Lewis says. The house directly across from 76 Edgecombe, was the original Edgecombe Sanitarium which was owned by A’Lelia Walker’s second husband, Dr. Wiley Wilson. Some historians say that she gave him the building as part of their divorce settlement.
Finally, the three story house directly behind 76 Edgecombe Avenue was purchased by the Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association in the late 1920′s to be used as a clubhouse and graduate nurse’s residence. The first of its kind for Black RN’s in the USA.
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This news about a possible B&B designed by the talented Stephen Burrows truly is exciting! Thankfully lots of new history is being revealed about these buildings. Please allow me to add some details to the material you’ve already discovered. For a biography I’m currently writing about A’Lelia Walker–my great-grandmother and namesake–I’ve discovered lots of new information both about her life and friendships in Harlem, her childhood, her travels and her work with her mother’s company. I just wanted to let you know that she moved into her pied-a-terre at 80 Edgecombe as she was opening Dark Tower at her townhouse at 108-110 West 136th Street as a way to have some privacy. The home her mother built, as you probably know, was (and still is) Irvington-on-Hudson (rather than Croton) and is a National Historic Landmark and private residence and currently for sale (www.madamwalkerestate.com) Dr. Wiley Wilson, her second husband, opened the Wiley Wilson Sanitarium on 138th Street in the same building that housed the Red Rooster for many years. A’Lelia Walker had indeed made the down payment for that building. The Edgecombe Sanitarium actually was operated by another group of physicians and never owned or operat3ed by Wiley Wilson. I look forward to learning more about the B&B and am happy to provide historical details.
A’Lelia Bundles
http://www.madamcjwalker.com
Washington, DC
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