Harvey Nathaniel Johnson was a Richmond-born architect and minister who designed Norfolk’s Attucks Theatre, often called the Apollo Theater of the South in the early twentieth century. Johnson was born on September 26, 1892, to Ruffin Franklin Johnson and Ellen Banks Johnson. He attended Wayland Academy (now Virginia Union University) from 1907 to 1910. He served as a construction foreman at Camp Hill in Newport News during World War I (1914–1918) and then enrolled at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1919 to study architecture. He opened a successful architecture practice in Norfolk, where he designed and supervised the construction of houses and offices as well as the 600-seat Attucks Theatre, which became the entertainment center of the city’s African American community. In 1924, Johnson became pastor of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Lindenwood, and in 1931 he became pastor of Portsmouth’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. Johnson also continued his involvement in architecture, overseeing several church construction and renovation projects. In the tradition of African American clergy, Johnson exercised leadership in community organizations and local government, tackling social issues of importance to the African American community. Johnson died of a heart attack on December 6, 1973, and was buried at Portsmouth’s Lincoln Memorial Cemetery.
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