On April 11, 2025 the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center will host a gala to celebrate its centennial. Originally called the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House, it opened on October 17, 1924 in a two-story wooden structure that had previously housed the Hebrew Talmud School at 808 Bassett Place. Bassett Place was a street that was between Aldrich and Bryant Aves at that time. It was named after Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753−84), an 18th Century enslaved woman who became a well-known poet. The founders of the Wheatley were well-to-do white women from an organization called the Women’s Cooperative Alliance (WCA) who felt there needed to be a settlement house for the growing Black community in North Minneapolis.
One cannot talk about the history of the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House without also talking about W. Gertrude Brown, who was an African American social worker from Dayton, Ohio who became the first director and head resident at Phyllis Wheatley. She felt the Wheatley should provide services for Black people that they couldn’t easily find elsewhere in Minneapolis. One example was to provide housing at Phyllis Wheatley for students who were enrolled at the University of Minnesota because Black students were not allowed to live in the school’s dormitories. The Wheatley also provided a place for Black luminaries and entertainers to stay, such as Marian Anderson, W. E. B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, because they could not stay in Minneapolis hotels due to segregation. In 1926 Ethel Ray Nance, who would later join the Minneapolis Police Department’s Women’s bureau becoming one of the first African American policewomen in Minnesota, joined the house’s staff as assistant head resident at the Wheatley.
The building on Bassett Place quickly became too small for everything that was taking place there and so fundraising began in 1926 to build a new facility. In the fall of 1929, a new three-story brick building opened at 809 Aldrich Ave N. Taking up half a city block, this new building had a big kitchen, dormitory rooms, classrooms, a library, a gymnasium, space for a nursing school, a clothing distribution center and an apartment for W. Gertrude Brown. Miss Brown also saw to it that Phyllis Wheatley would provide job placement programs, childcare for working mothers, and a gathering place for social and political organizations. She even hosted meetings for the Pullman porters to discuss creating a union despite facing opposition from the Phyllis Wheatley’s board of directors.
During the depression of the 1930s Brown would use her friendship with Mary McCloud Bethune, who also happened to be friends with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, to take advantage of the programs of President Roosevelt’s New Deal to help Wheatley and the community. Many Black garment workers, teachers, nurses, office workers and other professionals were trained at Phyllis Wheatley. Even though W. Gertrude Brown had become known nationally and internationally, she always had a focus on the children of North Minneapolis. She saw to it that Phyllis Wheatley offered Black children in the community access to amenities that other children had. She held a special place in the hearts of local children. W. Harry Davis (civic leader, businessman, school board member) grew up going to the Wheatley and called Miss Brown “the mayor of North Minneapolis.” W. Gertrude Brown left the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House in 1937.
In 1962, the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House became known as the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center. With the construction of I-94, the building on 809 Aldrich Avenue North was demolished in 1971. A joint project between the Wheatley Community Center, the Minneapolis Park Board, and the Minneapolis Public Schools funded the construction of a new building at 919 Emerson Avenue North which became home to Mary McCloud Bethune School, the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center and the Bethune Park Recreation Center. This new Mary McLeod Bethune School building was formally dedicated on May 3, 1969 and both the school and the Wheatley are still operating there today.
After 100 years, the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center is still part of the fabric of the Northside community as it looks forward toward its second century.
Note: Honoring our Past, Building our Future. The Phyllis Wheatley Community Center Centennial Gala is on April 11 at Quincy Hall. For info/tickets go to phylliswheatley.org.