[ Music plays ] Godlewski: The late architect Le Corbusier would often be heard saying that the history of architecture is the history of the struggle for light, for any student of history knows that the tale of this nation has often included as much as it has kept out.

The story I'm about to tell you is one about the struggle for light, which makes it a characteristically American story.

It is my great honor to shed light on one of the first African-American architects, an apprentice of Le Corbusier, amateur pilot, photographer, father, and a proud son of East Orange, a man whose indelible mark on history deserves to finally see the light.

This is the story of Edward T. Bowser Jr. [ Music plays ] [ Car door slams ] [ Music plays ] Godlewski: Hello.

Bowser: Hey, how are you?

This house reminds me of Ed's house on 41 Oak Street in East Orange, so it's so nice to come back and have all these fond memories from the early 1950s.

So East Orange in the '50s and '60s had a reputation of being one of the cleanest cities in the country.

We used to ride our bikes.

There was a milkman.

Very hometown-organized.

And, you know, we went to church.

My grandfather -- he had a very prominent role in the Calvary Baptist Church.

He also built a lot of churches as an architect.

We were in East Orange next to Uncle Eddie's house.

My grandfather's house was in the middle.

So we spent Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving going from house to house.

Uncle Ed -- he was a very inspirational guy.

He was one of my mentors when I was growing up.

He was a innovative photographer, that he actually set up a dark room in his bedroom.

He's got a pilot's license.

So he took us flying a couple of times.

Godlewski: You told me he was a veteran?

Bowser: My uncle Ed joined the Navy when it was segregated.

There were people who had illustrious military careers, but they were treated differently.

He was exceptional in school.

He and my Aunt Carmen got married, and they had my cousin Kathryn.

Godlewski: How did they end up in France?

[ Man speaking French ] Everybody looked at Le Corbusier as sort of a renowned international architect.

Le Corbusier was one of the most important architects of the modernist movement in Europe.

Bowser: My uncle sent a note to Le Corbusier and said, "Can I come and study with you in Paris?"

[ Ship horn blows ] It was kind of amazing for a young African American to go to Europe and study with Le Corbusier.

Godlewski: When did your uncle come back?

Bowser: Ed came back from Europe end of 1952.

And then, of course, he built his house, which was one of a kind.

Godlewski: He wanted to create beautiful houses, but also wanted people to live in that space.

Bowser: But there was a lot of discrimination.

Uncle Ed wasn't able to get an architectural license in New Jersey.

It was a tough environment to be a professional, and the fact that he later got his national architectural license shows that he must have been an exceptional guy.

[ Birds chirping ] Godlewski: I think I was always meant to live in this house.

As a young architect studying at Cooper Union, I designed a nine-square-grid house like this, built a model of it, you know, between a road and a brook, and I live now in a nine-square-grid house between a road and a brook at the edge of the forest.

Remarkable.

It's a contemporary house, but where it distinguishes itself is in the warm and brilliant details -- the cork floors, the wooden ceilings.

The windows are such that there are beautiful rays of sunlight that stream into the house all day long until sunset.

Edward Bowser Jr. took the modernist box in the air, and it arrives from the sky to America.

Having discovered this house has given me a very definite purpose.

When I started doing this, there were about 12 Bowser houses, and now more are coming to light.

There's about 18.

Mariconda: Hi.

I'm Glenn.

Hi.

Nice to meet you.

Godlewski: Until a month ago, I didn't know any of you.

And I didn't know that your Bowser houses existed.

Walker-Bennett: We have this commonality enjoying where you live and caring about where you live.

Horne: Yes.

This is my community.

I have found the people who appreciate this.

Mariconda: I'm Glenn Mariconda.

This is my home here at Nutley, New Jersey.

My wife, Asaka, and I have been here for a little over three years.

We're transplants from Brooklyn.

And the moment we walked in, we just, you know, fell in love with the house.

We had, like, an affinity for the house immediately.

We'd been looking for a Mid-Century house.

We saw this house for sale.

In the listing, there was just a little note at the end saying, "Oh, this architect worked for Corbusier."

And the story was completely intriguing to us.

We had never heard of Bowser.

It's, you know, got all these modernist elements.

But it's also built for living.

[ Music plays ] Fred: Well, I'm Fred Kingston.

My wife and I live in the house right next door.

I was a young man.

I just got out of the Navy.

I was 20 years old.

I used to drive by all the time with the truck just to look at it.

And these were the only two houses up here.

I was on duty.

The woman that lived here had a little fire, and I came up with the trucks and I put out the fire, and I made her an offer on the house, and, lo and behold, I wound up getting the house.

I've never had more fun in a house.

This is like living in your vacation house.

Colleen: Nutley is a very old town.

There are other historic houses.

One of them was Annie Oakley's house.

It is now gone.

There was another one where Jackie Kennedy's aunt lived -- gone.

[ Laughs ] Fred: It's all about money.

It's all about the dollar.

Colleen: It's all about money.

Fred: And it's funny that I'm just finding out within the last year or so more about the house than I ever knew in the 25 years that we've been here.

Edward T. Bowser Jr., architect, East Orange, New Jersey.

Sklar: My name is Janet Sklar.

I'm a real-estate agent, and my house is over on North Mountain in Montclair, New Jersey.

The story of Mr. Bowser definitely resonated with me immediately.

My father is an architect, and two of the houses that my father built for us had carports.

And this house had a carport, and you don't see those a lot.

It makes your day-to-day just feel more special living in a place like that.

Bowser: He had done everything that he could do here.

They got to Ghana in 1977.

He built a house, of course.

They had a technical school, and they would teach kids how to fix computers.

Before they moved out to Ghana, Ed built Kuzuri Kijiji, went to means "beautiful village" in Swahili.

It was supposed to be affordable and use materials to suggest an African village.

Godlewski: I believe it's being used for fire practices.

You know, that's how badly it's being treated.

Like, they want to knock it down.

So much of his work is being demolished or modified.

In the end, Bowser found peace in Ghana, where he died in 1995.

Remember his name.

Remember his story.

It is on all of us, especially those who live inside his wonderful creations, to make sure that that struggle for light will never be a struggle again.

[ Applause ]