Walking into one of these near-100 year old estates isn't just a walk back in American history, but World history
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Inside Villa Lewaro, The Estate of Madame CJ Walker, America's First Self-Made Black Female Millionaire
I received an email from a young woman who works for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. More or less it read, "Hey, you want to see Madam Walker's estate?"
The Trust, as they like to call it, was hosting a media tour of Villa Lewaro, the official name for the upstate New York estate of Madam C.J. Walker, the first self-made black female millionaire. Walker was a business pioneer who amassed her fortune developing beauty and hair products for black women.
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House Porn: Inside Hampton Estate, Baltimore's Largest Plantation & The Largest House in America (in 1790)
Most people have the idea that you have to wander around the Deep South to see an actual plantation. Ok. Let me speak for myself. I thought that. And I once made a point to drive an hour from New Orleans to see Plantation Row in Edgard, Louisiana. Another time, I drove 4.5 hours from Atlanta to Low Country, South Carolina to see Magnolia Plantation.
Turns out, I could have driven 45 minutes from where I grew up and BOOM: Hampton Estate. In its heyday the owners, the Ridgelys, had 25k acres of Baltimore's finest land— for the locals, that includes Lutherville, White Marsh, and parts of Baltimore City— and 300+ enslaved men and women, white and black, to work their grounds.
Who knew?
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