Nationality African American | Name John Lankford Role Architect | |
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Alma mater Shaw UniversityMorris Brown CollegeWilberforce University Died July 2, 1946, Washington, D.C., United States Residence Washington, D.C., United States Structures Chapelle Administration Building, St. Philip AME Church | ||
John A. Lankford (December 4, 1874 – July 2, 1946) was an American architect. He was the first professionally licensed African American architect in Virginia in 1922 and in the District of Columbia in 1924. He has been regarded as the "dean of black architecture".
Life
John Lankford was born on a farm near Potosi, Missouri on December 4, 1874. He attended Lincoln Institute and Tuskegee Institute, historically black colleges. He studied architectural and mechanical drawing from the International Correspondence School. He earned a bachelor of science from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1898. He earned master of science degrees from Morris Brown College and Wilberforce University.
He married Charlotte Josephine Upshaw in 1901. She was a granddaughter of Henry McNeal Turner, a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal church, the first independent black denomination founded in the United States.
In 1902, Lankford moved to Washington, D.C. to finish the design of the True Reformer Building. He was appointed supervising architect for the African Methodist Episcopal denomination. He organized the National Negro Business League chapter in Washington, D.C. in 1905. His Southern Aid Society building in Richmond, Virginia is considered the "first exclusively African American office building in the country, being the result of a collaboration between a black patron, architect, and contractor."
He lived and worked at 1448 Q Street, NW, in Washington.
Lankford died on July 2, 1946 in Washington, D.C. and is buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.
Buildings he designed include: