Rayfield, Wallace A.
1873-1941 · Contribution: 1899-1930s
Architect
Designed over 400 buildings across 20 states, including offering mail-order architectural plans nationwide
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1873
- Active since
- 1899
- Category
- Architecture & Design
- Best known for
- Designed 16th Street Baptist Church400+ buildings, mail-order plansFirst Black practice in Alabama
Impact on the world
Rayfield brought professional architecture to Black communities across the South and, through mail-order plans, nationwide, including the church that would become sacred ground of the civil-rights era.
Sources
- Chipman Design (15 Black Architects You Should Know)
1 more sources and references are available to members.
Related visionaries
Pittman, William Sidney
1875-1958
First African American to receive a federal architectural design contract
Taylor, Robert Robinson
1868-1942
First accredited Black architect in the United States; designed and constructed numerous Tuskegee Institute buildings
Lankford, John A.
1874-1946
First professionally licensed African American architect in Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Robinson, Hilyard
1899-1986
Designed the Langston Terrace Dwellings public housing project and the Tuskegee Army training base