The Entrepreneurial Genius of Wallace A. Rayfield

The Jackson Home restored to its 1965 appearance in Greenfield Village, June 2026. / Photo by staff of The Henry Ford.

Wallace A. Rayfield, at the turn of the twentieth century, was among a very small and elite group of university-trained African American architects. His prestigious training at Howard University and Pratt Institute, culminating in a B.A. from Columbia University (including a year of study in London), prepared him for a vibrant career designing and building homes, schools, churches, and commercial buildings for the burgeoning Black middle class of Birmingham, Alabama, and many other parts of the country.

Promotional Image, ca. 1910. / Courtesy of the Allen R. Durough Collection.

With the 1929 stock market crash and the subsequent Great Depression, Rayfield’s business suffered greatly, eventually collapsing.  Following his death in 1941, Rayfield’s office papers documenting his life’s work were dispersed or destroyed and he quickly disappeared into obscurity. His legacy of the hundreds of buildings he designed remained, but he became a forgotten name on a few cornerstones until he was rediscovered in the early 1990s and, most interestingly, was found to be the architect who designed the Jackson Home from Selma, Alabama, now restored in Greenfield Village.

Above: Rayfield design from The Southern Bungalow Book, ca. 1912. Below: Illustration from the Sears’ Modern Homes Book, 1914. Identical to the illustration found in Wallace Rayfield’s The Southern Bungalow book on which the Jackson Home’s design was based. The floor plan design pictured here is different. / Courtesy of the Allen R. Durough Collection (bottom)

Wallace Augustus Rayfield was born May 10, 1873, in Macon, Georgia, to Augustus and Mary Rayfield. Despite the political, social, and economic turmoil of the Reconstruction era, Rayfield’s early years were surprisingly stable and comfortable.   

Rayfield’s father was employed as a railroad porter for the Pullman Car Company, and his mother worked as a seamstress.  They were also property owners.  The Rayfield Family was relatively more prosperous than their neighbors in the racially diverse Washington Avenue neighborhood.   

As a young student, Rayfield showed great promise and was afforded an excellent local education. In 1885, a young Rayfield was given the opportunity to move to Washington, D.C., and an aunt, Clara Raglan, became his guardian.

In Washington, Rayfield became acquainted with a young white artist, Dela P. Mussey, who tutored Rayfield on Saturdays in her home.  Dela’s father was attorney R. Delavan Mussey.  Through the Mussey family, Rayfield secured an apprenticeship with the prestigious A.B. Mullett and Company architectural firm, where Mussey served as a corporate attorney.

Rayfield remained at A.B. Mullett for two years, and his time there seems to have influenced his own architectural designs, which feature characteristics of many architectural genres.

Rayfield’s church design book, ca.  1910. / Courtesy of the Allen R. Durough Collection.

While in Washington, Rayfield attended Howard University and graduated with a certificate from the Preparatory Department in 1896. At age twenty-three, Rayfield enrolled in the Department of Architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.  The architecture course of study at Pratt consisted of architectural drafting and rendering, freehand drawing, sketching, watercolor, mathematics, the history of architecture, and architectural design.  Rayfield studied at Pratt for two years and received his certificate of graduation in 1899.  Following his graduation from Pratt, Rayfield enrolled in the Department of Architecture at Columbia University and received a bachelor of architecture degree, topping off his training with a year’s course of special work with the famous Royal Polytechnic Insitution in London.

While still a student at Columbia University, Rayfield became acquainted with African American educator Booker T. Washington, who was visiting the campus.  Washington offered Rayfield a teaching position at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute? in Alabama following his graduation.  Rayfield would return to the South, now a university-trained architect, to become an instructor of mechanical and architectural drawing at the center for industrial education, Tuskegee Institute.

Wallace Augustus Rayfield and students in a mechanical drawing class at Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama, circa 1902. by Frances Benjamin Johnston. / Library of Congress.

During Wallace A. Rayfield’s tenure as instructor at Tuskegee Institute, the industrial drawing department underwent profound physical and curricular changes. Prior to his arrival, the classroom facilities of the department were rudimentary at best.  The thirty-five students enrolled in the department were crammed inside a dim eight-by-twelve-foot room, which held several drawing tables constructed by nailing wood board to saw benches.  Under Rayfield’s leadership, the department expanded to accommodate 320 students in 1901. In addition, the physical facilities of the Division of Architectural and Mechanical Drawing enlarged to encompass forty-seven drawing tables spread across two adjoining rooms illuminated by an abundance of natural light.

Rayfield also appears to have had a strong influence on the curriculum.  By 1901, the curriculum had shifted to place more weight on drawing, construction, and design.  Students were required to spend much of their time in the drawing room and attending lectures on a variety of subjects, such as lighting, heating, and plumbing.

Motivated by a sense of professional pride and possibly the desire to leave behind a legacy, Rayfield sought to systematize teaching materials for the students in his department.  In doing so, Rayfield developed an “Industrial Drawing Book” to form the foundation of his courses through its role as a sort of textbook. The book included twenty-four illustrations and provided the use of instruments and exercises to help with the projection method.

Title page from Wallace Rayfield’s

In addition to crafting his book for use in the classroom, Rayfield put his architectural skills and experience to good use by teaching private lessons during the summer.  This employment probably helped supplement his meager salary as a teacher.  During the summer of 1907, Rayfield advertised in newspapers his services in areas including “free-hand drawing (pencil), pen and ink, watercolors, charcoal work and mechanical work.”  Classes were offered for a variety of ages, from children and older students to adults.  The costs ranged from two dollars to three dollars for the entire eight weeks, half of which was to be paid in advance.

 In 1901 he married Jennie M. Hutchins. A native of Clarksville, Tennessee, Hutchins was a graduate of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute.  Rayfield also took a professional risk and ventured into private practice, opening his first architectural office in 1907.

Jennie Hutchins Rayfield, ca. 1920. / Courtesy of the Allen R. Durough Collection.

Exercising his entrepreneurial spirit, Rayfield began advertising immediately.  He advertised plans for cottages, schools, and churches. He also advertised a connection with W.T. Adams, a well-known contractor.

Within a brief period, Rayfield was advertising his successful contracts with schools in Florida, South Carolina, and Birmingham.

Notice from the February 9, 1919 Manufacturer’s Journal opening bids for the construction of the future Jackson Home in Selma, Alabama.

Rayfield resigned his position at Tuskegee on September 23, 1907.  Booker T. Washington, after initially refusing to do so, accepted the resignation and even wrote Rayfield a personal letter of recommendation. Rayfield moved to Birmingham the following year.

Rayfield’s family became firmly ensconced in Birmingham’s emerging Black middle class.  Jennie Hutchins Rayfield joined the famous Twentieth Century Club, serving as president from time to time.  She was a member of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church and was held in high regard in the community.  After a long illness she died in 1929 and was buried in the family plot at Grace Hill Cemetery.

Rayfield’s only child was Edith Rayfield, who successfully completed college and taught school at Council Elementary in Ensley, Alabama. She was married twice but had no children and died in 1989.

Edith Rayfield, ca. 1920. / Courtesy of the Allen R. Durough Collection.

Rayfield remarried in 1932, to Bessie Rogers, a domestic worker employed by two Birmingham physicians.  The couple lived at Rogers' home at 328 Ioata Avenue in Birmingham.  

Rayfield advertisement, ca.1910. / Courtesy of the Allen R. Durough Collection.

As a member of the Black middle class, and as the region’s only Black architect, Rayfield had a profound impact on the region’s built environment.  He designed homes for Birmingham’s Black leaders, churches for the community’s congregations, and schools for its children.

The home of Dr. R. B. Hudson, next door to the Jackson Home. Designed by Wallace A. Rayfield in 1910. / Photo by staff of The Henry Ford.

Often working in conjunction with Rayfield was Thomas C. Windham, a noted African American building contractor who, together with his brother, operated a construction firm in Birmingham that was in business for some seventy-five years. Windham was commissioned to construct the Trinity Baptist Church in the Smithfield Neighborhood as well as the 16th Street Baptist Church, a Rayfield design, in Birmingham.

16^th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, designed by Wallace A. Rayfield in 1909. / THF725347

Rayfield’s growing reputation was instrumental in securing significant endorsements and supervisory positions with national organizations.  Rayfield served as the Connectional Architect for the A.M.E. Zion Church, essentially the official architect for the church throughout the nation and Africa.  He was appointed the General Supervising Architect of the Freedmen’s Aid Society.   

Wallace A. Rayfield in his office, ca. 1925.

The Great Depression hit Birmingham particularly hard.  The rate of unemployment in Birmingham was double the national average, with half of all households devoid of any income.  With in such dire economic circumstances, the services of an architect were considered a luxury, and Rayfield’s business fell off considerably.  Plagued by declining fortunes, Rayfield suffered a paralytic stroke and died on February 28, 1941.  His funeral service was conducted at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church on Birmingham’s south side.  He was buried in the Greenwood Cemetery.

James R. Johnson is Director of Greenfield Village & Curator of Historic Structures & Landscapes at The Henry Ford.