Have you ever seen the Victorian mansion on Apple Street in Homewood? It's worn and boarded up today, but it was once a house for the most successful African American opera company in the United States, frequently visited by celebrities like Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, and Roberto Clemente. It’s all thanks to founder Mary Cardwell Dawson.
Dawson was a talented opera singer and impresario active in Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. She established the Cardwell School of Music in Homewood, as well as the Cardwell Dawson Choir.
After seeing the lack of opportunities for Black performers in the world of opera, she created the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC) in 1941 to inspire young artists. The debut performance took place later that year during the convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), which Dawson was president of in Pittsburgh.
When Dawson moved to Washington D.C. with her husband in 1943, she established another guild of the NNOC. Soon there were guilds in New York City, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, and Red Bank, New Jersey.
Dawson died of a heart attack on March 19, 1962, in Washington D.C. Without her presence to drive the NNOC forward, the company disbanded. But Dawson’s legacy lives on; the Dawson Art Guild was founded in New York City in 1971 and a chapter of the guild was also established in Pittsburgh by Dawson’s sister.
In 1994, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission dedicated a historical marker at the site of the Cardwell School of Music, where Dawson founded the NNOC. And the Victorian mansion on Apple Street is currently under renovations for preservation.
🎶 👀 See Dawson’s work honored at the City-County building through February 2025.
This story was originally written in partnership with the Heinz History Center's exhibit, "A Woman's Place: How Women Shaped Pittsburgh," March 2024 - Jan. 2025. Edits have been made for updates.
