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Walter T. Bailey

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Walter Thomas Bailey (January 11, 1882 – February 21, 1941) was an American architect from Kewanee, Illinois. He was the first African American graduate with a bachelor of science degree in architectural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the first licensed African-American architect in the state of Illinois. He worked at the Tuskegee Institute, and practiced in both Memphis and Chicago. Walter T. Bailey became the second African American that graduated from the University of Illinois.[1]

Walter T. Bailey
Born(1882-01-11)January 11, 1882
Kewanee, Illinois, U.S.
DiedFebruary 21, 1941(1941-02-21) (aged 59)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
OccupationArchitect
BuildingsWoodmen of Union Bath House
First Church of Deliverance

Early life and education

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Walter Thomas Bailey was born January 11, 1882, in Kewanee, Illinois, where he attended Kewanee High School.[2] He enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1900.[3] Bailey was the first African-American graduate of the University of Illinois' School of Architecture with a Bachelor of Science in architectural engineering.[4] He earned that degree in 1904 and was granted an honorary master's degree in architecture from the university in 1910.[3] On October 15, 1905, Walter T. Bailey married Josephine L. McCurdy. In the same year, Josephine gave birth to their first born, Edyth Hazel. Seven years later they gave birth to their second child, Josephine in 1913.[5]

Architectural career

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Bailey was the first licensed African-American architect in the state of Illinois.[6] Initially, after he graduated, Bailey worked for a small architectural firm owned by Henry Eckland in his hometown of Kewanee.[3] During this time, he also worked for a Champaign, Illinois, firm, Spencer & Temple.[3] Bailey assisted in the planning of the 1905 Colonel Wolfe School in Champaign during this period.[3]

In 1905, Bailey was appointed as the head of the Mechanical Industries Department at the Tuskegee Institute.[3] While at Tuskegee, Bailey designed several campus buildings including White Hall (1908), and a girl's dormitory.[3] He remained at Tuskegee until 1916 when he moved to Memphis and opened a practice on Beale Street. After Bailey's move to Memphis he began the first of multiple commissions for the Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. He designed the Mosaic State Temple Building and the Pythian Theater Building, both in Little Rock in 1922. The next year he undertook another Arkansas commission, this one in Hot Springs, the Pythian Bath House and Sanitarium.[3] The Pythian Bath House and Sanitarium was constructed solely for the use of African Americans.[7]

 
The Overton Hygienic Building on South State Street. Bailey's first Chicago office was on the second floor.

Through his Knights of Pythias connections, Bailey was given what would be the largest commission of his career, the National Knights of Pythias Temple in Chicago, Illinois. Construction began on the building in 1924 and Bailey moved his office to the city.[2] The construction of National Pythian Temple cost $850,000.[8] The site of the temple was on Chicago's south side in an area known as "Bronzeville" or "Black Metropolis".[3] Bailey first rented an office on the second floor of the Overton Hygienic Building on South State Street.[2][9] Construction on the National Knights of Pythias Temple proceeded slowly and by 1928 the interior of the building remained unfinished.[2] The National Pythian Temple "was planned to be the headquarters of the Knights of Pythias and to house the lodge's combined national offices, numerous meeting halls, and rent-producing stores and offices."[5] Walter T. Bailey designed terra- cotta griffins in the frieze of the Knights of Pythias Temple.[10] Though the Knights of Pythias eventually lost ownership of the building, Bailey did maintain his office in the structure after its completion.[2] The Knights of Pythias Temple was demolished in 1980.[10] A large decorative fragment from the building, an Egyptian pharaoh in glazed terra cotta, probably designed by Baily to celebrate black pride, is conserved in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.[11]

Aside from the Knights of Pythias Temple in Chicago Bailey had few major commissions during the 1920s and the subsequent Great Depression greatly decreased business for Bailey and many other black entrepreneurs in the area.[2] The last major project for Bailey was the Chicago Landmark art moderne First Church of Deliverance in 1939.[2] The First Church of Deliverance designed in Art Moderne style, was inspired by Reverend Clarence H. Cobbs. The art Moderne style is predominately composed of strong horizontals with large glass panel windows. Walter T. Bailey implemented the style of Art Moderne by adding lines of green terra-cotta blocks on the facade of the Church of Deliverance.[12] The building served as both a church and a radio station for Reverend Clarance Cobbs to broadcast sermons.[5]

Death

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The Olivet Baptist Church, a prominent African-American Chicago church and reportedly one of Bailey's last projects
 
Bailey's First Church of Deliverance, a Chicago Landmark

Bailey died on February 21, 1941, in Chicago, from pneumonia and complications caused by heart disease.[2] Obituaries at the time stated he was working on two projects when he died. One was the Olivet Baptist Church, the other was reportedly the Ida B. Wells Homes but that work was probably in a secondary capacity.[2]

Selected works

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References

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  1. ^ Williamson, Joy Ann (2003). "The Snail-like Progress of Racial Desegregation at the University of Illinois". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (42): 116–120. doi:10.2307/3592457. ISSN 1077-3711. JSTOR 3592457.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wilson, Dreck Spurlock. African-American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary (1865–1945), (Google Books link), Taylor & Francis, 2004, pp. 15–26, (ISBN 0415929598).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Walter T. Bailey 1904 MSAE, "Alumni", University of Illinois Urbana Champaign African American Architecture Alumni Project, updated 2008, accessed November 29, 2010.
  4. ^ Mitchell, Melissa Research Project Spotlights African-American Architects from U. of I.", University of Illinois News Bureau, February 9, 2006, accessed November 29, 2010.
  5. ^ a b c Wilson, Dreck Spurlock (2004). Wilson, Dreck Spurlock (ed.). African American Architects A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. doi:10.4324/9780203493120. ISBN 9780203493120.
  6. ^ Bey, Lee. "Art Moderne beauty: First Church of Deliverance", WBEZ, 91.5, February 15, 2010, accessed November 29, 2010.
  7. ^ Anthony, Kathryn; Watkins, Nicholas (2009). A Legacy of Firsts: African Americans in Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign (PDF). University of Illinois Press. p. 284. ISBN 9780252076657. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  8. ^ REED, CHRISTOPHER ROBERT (2011). The Rise of Chicago's Black Metropolis, 1920-1929. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252036231. JSTOR 10.5406/j.ctt1xcdxg.
  9. ^ Savage, Beth L. and National Register of Historic Places. African-American Historic Places, (Google Books link), John Wiley and Sons, 1994, p. 207, (ISBN 0471143456).
  10. ^ a b Mahoney, Olivia (2001). Douglas/Grand Boulevard : a Chicago neighborhood. Arcadia. OCLC 698378082.
  11. ^ Fisher, Alison (November 22, 2022). "Walter T. Bailey's National Pythian Temple Fragment, Chicago, Illinois". Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  12. ^ Pinder, Kymberly N. (2016). "First Church of Deliverance and Its Media Ministry". Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden. University of Illinois Press. pp. 51–68. ISBN 9780252039928. JSTOR 10.5406/j.ctt18j8x0j.7. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)

Further reading

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