True Reformer Building

The True Reformer Building stands out for its curved corner facade of dark red brick and limestone, a design that anchored a bustling hub of Black professional life in the early twentieth century. It was commissioned by the Grand United Order of True Reformers, a massive mutual aid society founded by former enslaved people. John Anderson Lankford, the city’s first registered Black architect, designed the space in nineteen oh three to house banks, newspapers, and offices for the community, all financed by its own members.