The Beginning
Students of Walker Business College, c. 1916 | State Archives of Florida
With her first husband Richard Wendell Walker, Dr. Julia S. Walker-Brown founded Walker’s Business College in 1916. Julia Saphronia was born in Georgia and attended Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Richard W. Walker was from Kansas and had previously attended Fairmont University in Wichita. The school’s first location was in LaVilla, across the street from the Masonic Temple at 417.5 Broad Street. Offering both day and night classes, the school focused as a transitional bridge for veterans returning to civilian life. During its early years, the Walkers were experts in shorthand touch typewriting, bookkeeping, commercial law, business penmanship, civil service, hand painting, flower and lamp shade making. By 1922, the school name had become Walker’s National Business College. After being located at 1148 West Adams Street for a year, the college moved to 610 West Duval Street, where it remained in operation between 1923 and 1925. In 1925, the college relocated to 611 Harrison Street in the Eastside.
The Macon years
In 1926, Florida’s roaring 1920s real estate bubble burst, sending the city into an economic recession. In 1928, the Walkers relocated to Macon, Georgia and began teaching classes out of their house. A few months later, in May 1929, they opened a new Walker’s Business College campus in Macon. That college campus was located at 517.5 Cotton Avenue. The college remained in Macon until the early 1930s around the time of Richard’s death.
Walker returns to Jacksonville
An interior view of Walkers Commercial and Vocational College. | City of Jacksonville
After her husband’s death, Julia Walker returned to Jacksonville and opened Walker’s Commercial College at 319 Broad Street in LaVilla. In 1935, Julia S. Walker was listed in public directories as the college’s president while Walter C. Cogdell was listed as the school’s dean.
By 1940, listed as a widow, directories show Julia S. Walker lived at 4302 Moncrief Road. Walker’s household included her niece Edna Mae Thompson and four lodgers between the ages of 66 and 18. In 1941, Julia S. Walker married Lafayette A. Brown. Once employed as a porter, Brown lived in Jacksonville’s Eastside. Lafayette A. Brown eventually became the college’s vice president. He was also employed as a design radio technician at the school.
Serving veterans transitioning into civilian life and rebranded as Walker’s Commercial & Vocational College, the school also catered to the local community, by offering courses in bookkeeping, accounting, insurance, office machines and secretarial training. A trade division offered courses in dressmaking, tailoring, radio, television and upholstering.
In 1950, Walker’s Commercial & Vocational College expanded through a relocation to Durkeeville. There it occupied buildings on both sides of Myrtle Avenue between West 8th and 9th streets. Its tailoring classes were taught by former NAACP president and civil rights activist, Johnnie H. Goodson.
Dr. Julia Walker-Brown’s school also had ties to Bethune-Cookman University founder Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. Margaret Bethune, the daughter-in-law of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, was employed as an office secretary at the school during the 1950s. At the time, the Bethune family resided in a nearby Sugar Hill home located at 1048 Scriven Street.
Dr. Julia Walker-Brown’s Walker’s Commercial & Vocational College closed its doors in 1970, six years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 55 years later, Dr. Julia Walker-Brown’s legacy as an early 20th century successful businesswoman remains and can be seen in a cluster of surviving commercial buildings on Myrtle Avenue that were once a part of the college’s Durkeeville campus.
Completed in 1950, 1815 Myrtle Avenue North was once occupied by the Walker Vocational & Commercial College. During the 1950s and 60s, it also was the location of the U.S. Post Office’s Carver Station. | Ennis Davis, AICP
Editorial by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com