Almost exactly 10 years ago, I had the honor of meeting Selvan Edwards, who was a member of the family that did a huge amount of carpentry work around the Hill from about 1960 onward. I ended up writing up an article on him and his family for the Hill Rag, which was published in the July 2012 issue.
Edwards and his family worked on buildings as diverse as the Frederick Douglass House and Brinkley’s Bar, but probably most famously on Mr. Henry’s, when Henry Jaffe created that space in the early 1960s. In fact, it was most likely a member of the Edwards family that originally named Jaffe “Mr. Henry,” making the naming of his new venture an easy call.
Selvan Edwards was born on November 4, 1954. Following in the footsteps of his father, E.C. Edwards, a carpenter, he, and his twin brother Melvan, picked up a hammer at an early age. While in school, one of the teachers in his school (though, as he admitted, not one who taught him) was Roberta Flack, though he did help in renovating church pews that were installed upstairs at Mr. Henry’s when Jaffe turned that space into a performance space for Flack.
In the ensuing years, Edwards, his twin, as well as his father and grandfather, worked on buildings all across the Hill, including turning the old Frederick Douglass House into the first iteration of the African Art Museum, under the direction of Warren Robbins.
One of the buildings they worked on received the ultimate seal of approval shortly after its renovation: a writeup in the New York Times. The article describes how an old organ factory was converted into a home with 26-foot ceilings and a balcony. They did not, however, mention who had swung the hammer in that renovation.
Sadly, Selvan Edwards passed away on January 19 of this year. As a celebration of his life, a viewing and funeral service were held Wylie Funeral Home (9200 Liberty Road, Randallstown, MD 21133)