This home was designed in 1918 by an African American architect, Vertner Woodson Tandy, for an African American cosmetics magnate, Madame CJ Walker, on the Hudson River north of New York City. When Madame CJ Walker was asked why she built such a palatial home, she replied that she had not built it for herself but so that blacks could see what could be accomplished with hard work and determination.
Villa Lewaro, the name of the estate, has significance for both its architect and original owner. Tandy was New York's first licensed black architect. This building was known as his best work.
No one knows Madame CJ Walker's exact worth, but she was considered to be the nation's first African American woman millionaire.
