Black History Month Tribute: Paul Williams, Architect to the Stars
Meet Paul Revere Williams (1894-1980), an African-American architect whose work can be seen all over the country, everywhere from the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel to the regal Angelus Funeral Home on Crenshaw Boulevard that handled funerals of rapper Nipsey Hussle and director John Singleton (“Boyz in the Hood”).
Paul R. Wiliams | Courtesy of St. Jude/ALSAC
The Beverly Hills Hotel
Angelus Funeral Home | Courtesy of Jade Holmes Christian
Despite a teacher once telling him, “Your people will not be able to afford you and white people will not hire you. Be a doctor or a lawyer, because your people always need those,” Williams didn’t let naysayers like that stop him. “I owe it to myself and to my people to accept this challenge,” is what he told himself.
Williams went on to become known as the “architect to the stars,” designing homes for clients like Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and Cary Grant.
Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz
But, of all of the amazing work that Williams did throughout his career, the design that I’m most impressed by is the one that he donated to his friend Danny Thomas to build the original St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, built in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962.
Williams believed in Danny Thomas’s vision that he could create a hospital in the segregated South for children of all races whose parents wouldn’t have to pay for anything, including food and lodging while their children were treated at St. Jude.
Paul Williams & Danny Thomas | Courtesy of St. Jude/ALSAC
Original St. Jude rendering/Courtesy of St. Jude/ALSAC
St. Jude in 1962 | Courtesy of St. Jude/ALSAC
Danny Thomas and a St. Jude Patient | Courtesy of St. Jude ALSAC
It’s because of stories like this, and people like Danny Thomas and Paul Williams, that I continue to do the work that I do for St. Jude so that it can continue doing the great work that it does for ALL children.
St. Jude Patient | Courtesy of St. Jude/ALSAC