The Architectural Legacy of Wallace A. Rayfield

A priceless material legacy documenting Wallace Rayfield’s life and work on two continents

In the early 1990s, while cleaning out the barn on his property in Bessemer, Alabama, Allen Durough discovered the remnants of the lifework of African American architect Wallace A. Rayfield, including several hundred of Rayfield’s drawings, floor plans, business advertisements, family portraits, and graphic art pieces. This book gathers that priceless material legacy into a cohesive whole, reproducing 159 illustrations that document Rayfield’s life and work on two continents.

 

Born in Macon, Georgia, in 1873, Rayfield apprenticed as a young man with the noted architectural firm A. B. Mullet and Company in Washington, DC, before attending HowardUniversity, Pratt Polytechnic Institute, and ultimately graduating with a bachelor of architecture degree from ColumbiaUniversity. He returned south to teach at the Tuskegee Institute and then to establish W. A. Rayfield & Co., Architects, in Birmingham, Alabama. From there he designed buildings for construction across the south (many by mail order) and even in Africa. Rayfield specialized in church architecture, and many of his designs were for black congregations within the state, most notably the SixteenthStreetBaptistChurch in Birmingham. But he also designed schools, office buildings, and private homes. After falling into bankruptcy during the Great Depression, he died in obscurity.

 

Durough includes catalog-style descriptive entries and illustrations of Rayfield’s designs for six types of structures: residences, churches, schools, commercial buildings, fraternal buildings, and barns. These entries contain location, commissioning data, and brief structural notes, providing a useful resource for architectural historians and preservationists. A listing of the 359 known Rayfield structures detail their locations in 19 states, plan date, building type, and name. Also included is a biographical sketch of Rayfield, an overview of his publications, and a survey of his professional artwork and advertisements.