A new historic marker honoring Richmond business and civil rights leader Maggie L. Walker sits in front of the historic St. Luke Building that has stood in the 900 block of St. James Street in Gilpin Court since 1903.
Now a 12-unit apartment building with first-floor commercial space, the building began life as the national headquarters of the United Order of St. Luke, a Black fraternal and insurance group led by Mrs. Walker from 1899 until her death in 1934. Making bold moves, she pushed the fraternal order into developing the headquarters and taking other entrepreneurial action, including opening a bank.
