Helen Eugenia Parker facts for kids

Helen Eugenia Parker (1909-c.1940) was an American architect.

Early life and career

Parker was born to contractor Walter Eugene Parker and Willie Parker in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on 17 November 1909. The family of seven later moved to Little Rock, Arkansas. When graduating in 1926 from Wiley High School-College in Marshall, Texas (known as Wiley College today), she was a top student. It is also likely she attended Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Later career

Parker briefly returned to Little Rock. There, she taught mathematics in the segregated public high school, served as a librarian at the segregated library, and consulted for the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.

Around 1930s, Parker moved to Detroit, Michigan. There, she was an instructor for the Shop Drafting Training Program, part of the National Youth Administration of Works Progress Administration. As well as a drafter for the first two registered architects of color in Detroit, Alfonso R. Feliciano (1883-1940) a Puerto Rican graduate of Universidad de Barcelona, and Donald Frank White. She was associate architect for Trinity Hospital in Detroit, a black hospital which closed in 1962.

Parker was a board member of the Peter Pan Nursery. She was also active in professional associations, including Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the National Technical Association, and the Detroit Youth Assembly.

Death

Parker died after 1940.