Tandy, Vertner Woodson

Impact on the world

In 1906, while a student at Cornell University, Tandy co-founded Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established for African American men, serving as Alpha Chapter's first treasurer and taking the initiative to incorporate the new fraternity. He went on to become the first African American architect registered in New York State, designing the landmark St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Harlem and Villa Lewaro, the celebrated estate of entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker, both now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Life & background

While at Cornell, Tandy was among the small group of Black students who, facing pervasive racial exclusion from existing campus social life, organized in 1906 to found Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first Black collegiate fraternity in the United States; he served as Alpha Chapter's first treasurer and personally took the initiative to formally incorporate the fledgling organization, work that ran alongside his studies under Robert R. Taylor at Tuskegee Institute before he graduated from Cornell in 1908. Tandy became the first African American architect registered in New York State. Through his firm Tandy & Foster, he designed the Gothic Revival St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Harlem and, in 1918, Villa Lewaro, the celebrated Westchester County estate of entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker, along with the Ivey Delph Apartments housing project completed the year before his death.

Sources

1. National Trust for Historic Preservation (Three Influential African American Architects); The Cambridge Guide to African American History (Cambridge University Press); African American Registry