OurVaya

Mae Reeves

Why This Person Is Included

Mae Reeves opened Mae’s Millinery Shop in West Philadelphia in 1940–1942 with a $500 loan from a Black-owned bank and ran it for 56 years, until she retired at age 85 in 1997. She was the first African American woman to own a business on the 60th Street commercial corridor. Her shop served as a polling place, a community gathering point, and a fitting room where Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, and Marian Anderson sat alongside the women of Zion Baptist. When a water leak threatened the shop’s contents in 2009, the Smithsonian arrived within days. Two hundred and sixty-eight objects — including the original red neon sign — are now in the permanent Power of Place exhibition at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The sign is on 60th Street in the Smithsonian. The woman who kept it there is not in most curricula.

The Story

Mae Reeves was born on October 29, 1912. She opened Mae’s Millinery Shop circa 1940–1942 at 1630 South Street in Philadelphia, financing the start with a $500 loan from Citizens and Southern Bank, a Black-owned institution.1 The South Street location placed the shop one block from the Royal Theater, making it a natural destination for Black entertainers performing in the city.

In the early 1950s, for family reasons — she did not want to raise her son on South Street — Reeves relocated the shop to 41 North 60th Street in West Philadelphia.1 The move made her the first African American woman to own a business on that commercial corridor.2 She married Joel Reeves in 1944; they had two children, Donna Limerick Pitsenberger (a former NPR producer) and Reginald Reeves.

The Shop on 60th Street

Mae’s Millinery Shop at 41 North 60th Street became a community institution as well as a business. Documented clients included Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, and Marian Anderson, alongside Philadelphia socialites from the DuPont and Annenberg families and the working women of the surrounding neighborhood.1 Reeves’s daughter Donna Limerick recalled: ‘from people like Mrs. du Pont or Mrs. Annenberg, wealthy socialite women in the city of Philadelphia, and in would come a schoolteacher. And they would sit right next to them.’1

Every Election Day, Reeves and her husband moved the shop furniture out, rolled in voting machines, and distributed cake to voters — making the shop a neighborhood polling place.2 She served as president of the 60th Street Business Association and was a member of the National Association of Fashion and Accessory Designers, the Ladies Auxiliary of the Knights of Columbus, and the NAACP.2

Retirement, Legacy, and the Smithsonian

Reeves retired in 1997 at age 85 by personal choice. She left the shop intact and untouched, telling her family: ‘Don’t touch anything in this hat shop! I’m coming back to make more hats.’1 The shop remained locked for more than a decade. In 2009, after a water leak threatened the contents, her daughter Donna Limerick contacted the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture through its Save Our African American Treasures program. Curators arrived within days.2

The Smithsonian acquired approximately 268 objects from the shop, including the original red neon sign, the sewing machine, antique furniture, and the hats themselves.2 The collection is part of the permanent Power of Place exhibition at the NMAAHC, which opened in September 2016. Mae Reeves died on December 14, 2016, at age 104.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was Mae Reeves’s highest level of education?
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Mae Reeves’s educational background is not documented in any available public record. No degree, institution, or training program is identified in the Smithsonian oral history, NPR reporting, or academic sources covering her life and career. ⚠ VERIFY: Confirm no educational credentials appear in the Smithsonian NMAAHC archival materials or Montgomery History oral history records before publishing.
What was Mae Reeves’s net worth?
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No independently verified net worth figure is publicly available for Mae Reeves. No revenue, profit, or personal wealth figures for Mae’s Millinery Shop appear in any documented public source, including the Smithsonian oral history, NPR reporting, or academic records.
How did Mae Reeves start Mae’s Millinery Shop?
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Reeves secured a $500 loan from Citizens and Southern Bank, a Black-owned bank, to open Mae’s Millinery Shop circa 1940–1942 at 1630 South Street in Philadelphia. The opening year is documented differently across sources — the Smithsonian NMAAHC gives 1940; Wikipedia and NPR give 1942; Smithsonian magazine reconciles these as the loan secured in 1940 and the shop opened in 1941. No primary document such as a business license or lease has been located that settles the date. She was approximately 28 years old when she opened.
Who were Mae Reeves’s notable clients?
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Documented clients at Mae’s Millinery Shop included Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt, and Marian Anderson, all of whom came to the South Street shop during its early years when it was one block from the Royal Theater. The 60th Street shop was also patronized by members of the DuPont and Annenberg families alongside teachers, domestic workers, and the women of Zion Baptist Church. Donna Limerick, Reeves’s daughter, documented the shop’s mixed-race, mixed-class clientele: ‘from people like Mrs. du Pont or Mrs. Annenberg, wealthy socialite women in the city of Philadelphia, and in would come a schoolteacher. And they would sit right next to them.’ [Sources: NPR Code Switch; Smithsonian oral history with Mae Reeves and Donna Limerick]
How did Mae Reeves’s shop end up in the Smithsonian?
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When Reeves retired in 1997 at age 85, she left the shop entirely intact and untouched. In 2009, a water leak threatened the shop’s contents. Her daughter Donna Limerick, a former NPR producer, contacted the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture through its Save Our African American Treasures program. Curators arrived within days and examined the contents with Reeves’s children. The Smithsonian acquired approximately 268 objects — including the original red neon sign, the sewing machine, antique furniture, and hats. The collection is part of the permanent Power of Place exhibition at the NMAAHC, which opened in September 2016.