Hannah Elias
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Hannah Elias | |
|---|---|
 In The Sketch, March 29, 1905 | |
| Born | c. 1865 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation | Businesswoman |
| Known for | One of the richest Black women in the world at the time |
Hannah Elias (born c. 1865) was an American sex worker and landlord who became one of the richest Black women in the world during her lifetime.[1]
Hannah Elias was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 1820 Addison Street, one of nine children.[1] Her father Charles Elias was a "negro with Indian blood in him" who ran a large, well-regarded catering operation, her mother Mary Elias was "almost white", and they sent her to public school.[1][2] In 1884, to attend her sister Hattie's wedding in style, Hannah borrowed a ball gown without permission from her employer, leading to a sentence at Moyamensing Prison and her banishment from home.[2]: 157-158
On her own
Supporting herself as a sex worker at a "resort" owned by Emelyn Truitt in Manhattan's Tenderloin neighborhood, she met wealthy glass-factory owner John R. Platt, forty-five years her senior. She left the brothel when her twin brother David and suitor Frank P. Satterfield asked her to live with the latter in a boardinghouse in east Philadelphia.[2]: 161-162 She became pregnant and gave birth at the Blockley Almshouse in December 1885, giving the child up for adoption.[1]
Affair with John R. Platt
After Elias reunited with Platt, he gave her large sums of money, "volunteerd [sic] to start her in the boarding-house business", at 128 W 53rd Street, where as proprietress she rented a room to Cornelius Williams.[1][3] She then moved into a mansion at 236 Central Park West, passing as Sicilian or Cuban.[3] Williams later fatally shot city planner Andrew H. Green in front of Green's Park Avenue home, confusing him with Platt.[4]