Stop at the Library on a guided tour of the Maggie Walker House

Tours of the Maggie L. Walker House are held Tuesdays through Saturdays at 10 AM, 11 AM, 1 PM, 2 PM, and 3 PM. Individuals and groups of less than ten people must sign up at the Visitor Center. Participation is limited to 10 guests per tour, but the park is not that popular, so other than holiday weekends, you should not have a problem getting on the next available tour. If you have a group of ten or more, you must schedule a tour in advance by calling (804) 771-2017. Times can always change, so before making travel plans be sure to get the latest tour schedule on the National Park Service’s Things to Do web page for Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site.

Tours are free, last about an hour, and begin at the Visitor Center with a showing of the park film. The first floor is accessible for those in wheelchairs, but not the second floor.

The Walker Family moved to the house at 110 1/2 East Leigh Street in 1904. This section of Leigh Street was known as Quality Row and was home to many of the most prominent black residents of Richmond. It is here that Maggie would spend the rest of her life; she passed away in her bedroom on December 15, 1934.

The house was built in 1883 by George Boyd as a five-room row house, though it was expanded by a second owner, Robert Jones, in the 1890s, and again by the Walkers from the time they moved in up through the early 1920s. Gas lighting was converted to electric, central heating was added, and twelve more rooms and a porch were built during Walker’s time. There was a point when Maggie, her mother, her two sons, and their wives and children all lived in the house, which was the reason for the expansion. When all was said and done, the house had twenty-eight rooms. While the facade along Leigh Street is quite narrow, the house itself is 140 feet deep.

The Walker House was acquired by the National Park Service from the granddaughter of Maggie, and most of the furnishings were included, so nearly 90 percent of the items you see are original to the Walker Family. In fact, the grandchildren had lived in the house, so they were able to help set up the rooms as they remembered them.

The tour begins on the first floor in the parlor. In 1922 a wall was taken down to combine two rooms, creating a front and rear parlor. This is where the Walkers entertained guests and where the grandchildren had their piano lessons.

Rear parlor of the Maggie Walker House, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

One of the few furniture items that is not original is a chair that has been converted into a wheelchair, though it is modeled after the actual wheelchair used by Walker. In later life she was stricken with diabetes, and in 1928, became paralyzed due to the disease. She lived the last eight years of her life confined to a wheelchair and eventually died from diabetic gangrene.

Chair converted into a wheelchair for Maggie Walker on display at Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

Connected to the rear parlor is the formal dining room. This was not used on a daily basis, but instead served as the dining room for Sunday dinners, holiday meals, and when guests such as poet and writer Langston Hughes or W. E. B. Dubois, a co-founder of the NAACP, came to visit the Walker family. Though largely forgotten today, Maggie Lena Walker was extremely well known in Richmond, and was considered an equal by all of the most prominent black activists, entertainers, and politicians on the east coast.

Formal Dining Room at the Maggie Walker House, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

Across the hall from the dining room is a room that was created by enclosing an outdoor porch. It was nicknamed Melvin’s Den after Maggie’s youngest son Melvin, who used the room to hang out with his Omega Psi Phi fraternity brothers from Shaw University. On display are a Victrola and a card table that doubles as a bar, possibly used to hide liquor during prohibition.

Victrola and card table in Melvin’s Den at the Maggie Walker House, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

Non-formal dining was done in the kitchen. The stove on display was installed by the original owner back in 1883. The right hand side is gas burning and the left hand side is wood burning. The item to the right of the stove is the ice box. The kitchen was originally a separate building, which up until the 1900s was a common practice as a precaution against fire hazards. The second owner had it connected to the main house in 1889.

Kitchen at the Maggie Walker House, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

The last room on the bottom level that is still furnished is the laundry room. The room had cold running water; a stove was installed to provide hot water.

Laundry Room at the Maggie Walker House, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

The room across from the kitchen was originally used as the bedroom for housekeeper and cook Polly Payne. She was a distant cousin of Maggie’s husband, Armstead, and was taken in by the Walker family when she was young. Once Maggie was confined to a wheelchair in 1928, she had an elevator installed in this room, and Payne was moved upstairs. The elevator was operated by a pulley, so somebody had to physically hoist Maggie up and down between the first and second floors. This was the job of the chauffeur. Sounds like a bum deal for him, but prior to the elevator he had to carry her up and down the stairs. Today the room is empty.

The tour proceeds to the second floor bedrooms and starts at the back of the house, with the first room that you come to being that of Melvin and his wife Ethel until they got divorced in 1928. The room was added to the house in 1922.

Room of Melvin and Ethel Walker at the Maggie Walker House, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

The room across the hall is now a storage room, but it was once the bedroom of Melvin’s daughter. Melvin continued to live in the house after the divorce, but Ethel and the children moved out. It is in this room that the second floor entrance to the elevator is located. The room is now full of Walker family belongings that got packed away when they were no longer used.

Storage room in the Maggie Walker House, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

There are a number of other bedrooms that the tour briefly passes. One belonged to Maggie Laura, the daughter of Maggie’s oldest son, Russell. He and his family also lived in the house. A guest bedroom was often used by Maggie Laura as a playroom when it was not occupied.

Room of Maggie Laura Walker at the Maggie Walker House, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

Guest bedroom at the Maggie Walker House, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

A room used as Maggie Walker’s office was originally the bedroom of her mother until she passed away in 1922. This is one of the original rooms from the 1883 construction. On the wall is a portrait of her two sons. She had a third son, but he died when he was seven months old.

Maggie Walker’s upstairs office, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

The last stop on the tour is Maggie’s bedroom. This is situated at the front of the house and has a view of Leigh Street. The wheelchair on display is not original, but it is an antique from the time period. The original wheelchair is in poor condition and thus not displayed. The rest of the furnishings are original, including the family bible on the table.

Bedroom of Maggie Walker, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

Maggie Walker’s bed, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

Bedroom of Maggie Walker, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site

The last Walker to live in the house was Russell’s wife Hattie. Russell died in 1923 at the age of thirty-three from alcohol related catarrhal gastritis, an inflammation of the stomach lining. He began drinking after mistaking his father for a burglar and killing him back in 1915. Melvin died from pneumonia one year after his mother. Upon Hattie’s death, the house passed to Maggie Laura, and it was she who sold it to the National Park Service in 1978. After renovations, the house opened to the public in 1985.

The only other activity at Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, other than a stop at the Visitor Center, is a walking tour of Jackson Ward, the historic neighborhood surrounding the Walker House. The tour is self-guided, though there is an audio commentary that you can download to your smartphone ahead of time. See the Jackson Ward Walking Tour web page for more information.

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