User:Chengbatian/Amaza Lee Meredith

Early life and family
Meredith was born in Lynchburg, Virginia as a daughter of Samuel Peter Meredith and Emma Pink Kenney. She had three siblings, two sisters and a brother. Meredith maintained a lifelong good relationship with her older sister Maude. Samuel, Amaza's father, was a carpenter, and Emma, her mother, was a seamstress. Because her father was white and her mother was black, her parents where prohibited by anti-miscegenation laws from marrying in Virginia. In Amaza Lee Meredith's birth certificate, she is only identified as Emma Kenney's daughter. The name of the father is left out. Nevertheless, Samuel Meredith cared about his family and built them a house in which he moved in as well some years later. He also supported them financially. Eventually, her parents travelled to Washington, D.C. in racially separated railroad-cars to get married and finally moved in together afterwards. Not long after that, her father began to lose business as a result of the controversial marriage and was soon in debt. He committed suicide in 1915. Despite the difficult family-life in an interracial family, both parents had great influence on Meredith. Her father, a carpenter, taught her how to draw blueprints and built models. He instilled in her the wish to become an architect. Her mother, who worked as a seamstress before having her children, believed education was the key against racist public opinion. Amaza's mother was relatively highly educated herself. She was a convincing, engaged woman and she built a local network of support at Lynchburg's Eight Street Baptist church, which was a center for female political and social activities. She supported her children's education by sending them to college. It was there when Amaza Lee Meredith met her future companion, Dr. Edna Meade Colson, with whom she held correspondence during her entire vocational education and later moved in with in their shared home "Azurest South". Although it is not quite clear (and not very likely given the time they lived in) whether they lived as an openly homosexual couple, it is safe to say their relationship was committed and loving. Both Meredith and Colson were honorary members of the Gillfield Baptist Church. They lived together until Meredith died in 1984 and are buried alongside each other in Petersburg, Virginia, at Eastview Cemetery. All in all, Amaza Lee Meredith maintained a modern, self-sufficient lifestyle despite the social barriers that she had to overcome.

Other Achievements
Meredith was also an inventor. In 1955, she received a patent for an accessory to be attached to a golf bag. Also, she developed the "Kant Drop", a top that can be attached to any recyclable container. She continued to design buildings and paint throughout the 1960s. Some of her artwork was exhibited in Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and galleries in New York and North Carolina, some is still displayed in the Gillfield Baptist Church or hangs in residents’ homes. In the 1970s, Meredith designed logos to be used for a proposed name change for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Career in Architecture
Meredith was the first African American scholar to receive a land grant in Virginia. Meredith's commitment to her family, friends, and the advancement of Black cultural equity was a guiding thread throughout her career. Despite the fact that Amaza was never a registered architect, she was one of just a few black architects in practice at the time, and one of the country's few female black architects. (On the basis of the 1910 U.S. Census, only 59 black architects and 47 black draftsmen were employed.) The fact that most of Meredith's historical work has been lost, Virginia State University continues to honor her famous achievements. While her exact number of works is unknown, Amaza has been attributed with architectural design for houses in Virginia, Texas, and New York. The most prominent of them are two mansions in Azurest North. Despite having no formal training in architecture, Meredith designed many homes for her family and friends in Virginia, New York and Texas. Her first building was Azurest South, which was completed in 1939 and was designed completely by Meredith in the International Style. She designed it herself to express her aesthetic sensibility, love of International Style architecture, and interest in avant-garde design. She and her partner, Colson, moved in together after its completion and it would be their primary residence for the rest of their lives.

Azurest South is considered a rare example of the International Style in Virginia and displays her interest in avant-garde design. Meredith also used Azurest South as her own art studio. She was active in documenting her lifestyle and accomplishments at Azurest through photographs. The archived documentation and remains of Azurest have inspired intersectional research on race, queerness, and spatial design during the Jim Crow Era. Also,she used her aesthetic and artistic talent to coordinate color schemes and draw blueprints for several campus buildings. For example, she worked with the Alumni House Committee from 1949 on in proposing the creation of an Alumni House. After her proposals were turned down, she decided to give half of Azurest South to the Alumni Association after her death, hoping it would be used as an Alumni House, as it actually is today. Meredith also worked as an advisor of interior decoration on the local better homes Committee. In 1947, Meredith started developing a 120 lot subdivision in Sag Harbor called Azurest North together with her older sister Maude. Azurest North was created as a vacation destination for middle class African Americans. In order to develop Azurest North, the two sisters and other developers formed a group, called Azurest Syndicate, which worked to create an African American leisure community. Lots were sold to investors who built cottages in Sag Harbor. Meredith designed at least two of these cottages. Terry Cottage, which belonged to her sister Maude Terry and was built in 1949 was designed with similar formal aspects to Azurest South. Edendot, which belonged to her friends Ed and Dot Spaulding was a Prairie Style building. Following her retirement, she took a post as the official secretary of the Azurest Syndicate Inc. Azurest South became the home of the Virginia State University National Alumni Association in 1986, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Meredith's historical highway marker has been approved by the Department of Historic Resources in 2008.

Other Achievements
Meredith was also an inventor. In 1955, she received a patent for an accessory to be attached to a golf bag. Also, she developed the "Kant Drop", a top that can be attached to any recyclable container. She continued to design buildings and paint throughout the 1960s. Some of her artwork was exhibited in Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and galleries in New York and North Carolina, some is still displayed in the Gillfield Baptist Church or hangs in residents’ homes. In the 1970s, Meredith designed logos to be used for a proposed name change for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

https://www.vsuaaonline.com/azurest-south/amaza-lee-meredith-1895-1984

https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/amazaleemeredith

https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/changemakers/items/show/20

https://shainamote.com/blogs/journal/women-in-architecture-amaza-lee-meredith