Sara Spencer Washington
A Virginia entrepreneur who headed north in 1911, opened Arctic Avenue Beauty Salon in Atlantic City. She expanded by teaching beauty culture door-to-door with products of the day, some self-styled. Madame Washington, as she would later be called, patented a hair curl-remover and later incorporated as Apex Beauty Products. That company would eventually manufacture more than 70 products sold by some 45,000 Apex agents nationwide. Her Apex School of Scientific Beauty Culture became established in 12 U.S. cities, as well as, in the Caribbean and South Africa, training some 4,000 people annually. At the New York World’s Fair in 1939, she was named one of the world’s ten top businesswomen. Madame Washington became one of this country’s first female African-America millionaires and in 1997 was inducted into the Atlantic County Women’s Hall of Fame. She also founded the Northside Easter Parade and was on the Northside Board of Trade.
[Seal of the] City of Atlantic City, Incorporated March 1854.
Marker is at the intersection of North Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Arctic Avenue, on the right when traveling south on North Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.
Courtesy hmdb.org
