The Madam C. J. Walker Building, which houses the Madam Walker Legacy Center, was built in 1927 in the city of Indianapolis, in the U.S. state of Indiana, and as Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991. The four-story, multi-purpose Walker Building was named in honor of Madam C. J. Walker, the African American hair care and beauty products entrepreneur who founded the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, and designed by the Indianapolis architectural firm of Rubush & Hunter. The building served as the world headquarters for Walker's company, as well as entertainment, business, and commercial hub along Indiana Avenue for the city's African American community from the 1920s to the 1950s. The historic gathering place and venue for community events and arts and cultural programs were saved from demolition in the 1970s. The restored building, which includes African, Egyptian, and Moorish designs, is one of the few remaining African-Art Deco buildings in the United States. The Walker Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. History Madam C.J. (Sarah Breedlove) Walker (1867–1919), an African-American hair care and beauty products entrepreneur around the turn of the century, began development of the Walker Building and its theatre prior to her death in 1919; however, her daughter, A'Lelia Walker, in collaboration with Freeman B. Ransom, the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company's attorney, supervised the completion of the project. The building was named in Madam Walker's honor and opened to the public on December 26, 1927, eight years after her death. The four-story, triangular-shaped building at 617 Indiana Avenue was designed by the Indianapolis architectural firm of Rubush & Hunter and built by W. Jungclaus Company. The Walker Building is located along Indiana Avenue, a center "of entertainment, business and pride" for the city's African American community from the 1920s to the 1950s. The building served as the world headquarters for the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, "one of the earliest, and for years the most successful, black business empires in the United States." In 1910, Madam Walker established the headquarters for her hair care and beauty business in Indianapolis, Indiana, where her company at one time employed about 3,000 women workers at its on-site factory. The company's new multi-purpose building opened in 1927. In addition to housing the company's headquarters and manufacturing facilities, the Walker building included