Published on March 18, 2025 at 10:59 am
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For nearly 50 years, Walker’s Commercial & Vocational College was a major Jacksonville educational institution. In honor of Women’s History Month, here’s the story behind the school and its founder Dr. Julia S. Walker-Brown.
The beginning
With her first husband, Richard Wendell Walker, Dr. Julia S. Walker-Brown founded Walker’s Business College in 1916. Julia Saphronia was born in Georgia and attended Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Richard W. Walker was from Kansas and attended Fairmont University in Wichita.
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The school’s first location was in LaVilla, across the street from the Masonic Temple at 417.5 Broad St. Offering both day and night classes, the school focused as a transitional bridge for veterans returning to civilian life. During the early years, the Walkers were experts in shorthand, touch typewriting, bookkeeping, commercial law, business penmanship, civil service, hand painting and lampshade making.
By 1922, the school had been renamed Walker’s National Business College. Moving to 1148 W. Adams St. for a year, the college then relocated to 610 W. Duval St. from 1923 to 1925. In 1925, it relocated to 611 Harrison St. on the Eastside.
The Macon years
In 1926, Florida’s roaring 1920s real estate bubble burst, sending the city into an economic recession. In 1928, the Walkers relocated to Macon, Georgia, and began teaching classes out of their house. A few months later, in May 1929, they opened a new Walker’s Business College campus in Macon. That college campus was located at 517.5 Cotton Ave. The college remained in Macon until the early 1930s around the time of Richard’s death.
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Walker returns to Jacksonville
After her husband’s death, Julia Walker returned to Jacksonville and opened Walker’s Commercial College at 319 Broad St. in LaVilla. In 1935, Julia S. Walker was listed in public directories as the college’s president and Walter C. Cogdell was listed as the school’s dean.
By 1940, Julia S. Walker lived at 4302 Moncrief Road. Walker’s household included her niece, Edna Mae Thompson, and four lodgers between the ages of 66 and 18. In 1941, Julia S. Walker married Lafayette A. Brown. Once employed as a porter, Brown lived on Jacksonville’s Eastside. Brown, who was employed as a radio technician at the school, eventually became the college’s vice president.
Serving veterans transitioning into civilian life and rebranded as Walker’s Commercial & Vocational College, the school also catered to the local community by offering courses in bookkeeping, accounting, insurance, office machines and secretarial training. A trade division offered courses in everything from dressmaking and upholstering to radio and television.
In 1950, Walker’s Commercial & Vocational College expanded through a relocation to Durkeeville. There it occupied buildings on both sides of Myrtle Avenue between West 8th and 9th streets. Its tailoring classes were taught by former NAACP president and civil rights activist, Johnnie H. Goodson.
Walker-Brown’s school also had ties to Bethune-Cookman University founder Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. Margaret Bethune, the daughter-in-law of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, was employed as an office secretary at the school during the 1950s. At the time, the Bethune family resided in a nearby Sugar Hill home located at 1048 Scriven St.
Dr. Julia Walker-Brown’s Walker’s Commercial & Vocational College closed its doors in 1970, six years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Fifty-five years later, Walker-Brown’s legacy as an early 20th century successful businesswoman remains and can be seen in a cluster of surviving commercial buildings on Myrtle Avenue that were once a part of the college’s Durkeeville campus.
