The Madam C. J. Walker Building, which houses the Madam Walker Legacy Center, was built in 1927 in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, and as Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1991. The four-story, multi-purpose Walker Building was named in honor of Madam C. J. Walker, the African American hair care and beauty products entrepreneur who founded the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, and designed by the Indianapolis architectural firm of Rubush & Hunter. The building served as the world headquarters for Walker's company, as well as entertainment, business, and commercial hub along Indiana Avenue for the city's African American community from the 1920s to the 1950s. The historic gathering place and venue for community events and arts and cultural programs were saved from demolition in the 1970s. The restored building, which includes African, Egyptian, and Moorish designs, is one of the few remaining African-Art Deco buildings in the United States. The Walker Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Madam C.J. (Sarah Breedlove) Walker (1867–1919), an African-American hair care and beauty products entrepreneur around the turn of the century, began development of the Walker Building and its theatre prior to her death in 1919; however, her daughter, A'Lelia Walker, in collaboration with Freeman B. Ransom, the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company's attorney, supervised the completion of the project. The building was named in Madam Walker's honor and opened to the public on December 26, 1927, eight years after her death. The four-story, triangular-shaped building at 617 Indiana Avenue was designed by the Indianapolis architectural firm of Rubush & Hunter and built by W. Jungclaus Company.

The Walker Building is located along Indiana Avenue, a center "of entertainment, business and pride" for the city's African American community from the 1920s to the 1950s. The building served as the world headquarters for the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, "one of the earliest, and for years the most successful, black business empires in the United States." In 1910, Madam Walker established the headquarters for her hair care and beauty business in Indianapolis, Indiana, where her company at one time employed about 3,000 women workers at its on-site factory. The company's new multi-purpose building opened in 1927. In addition to housing the company's headquarters and manufacturing facilities, the Walker building included a Walker beauty school/salon, a fourth-floor ballroom called the Grand Casino, an auditorium/movie theater, a drugstore, the Coffee Pot restaurant/coffee shop, and various professional offices.

The Walker Theater Company, a separate entity from the Walker Manufacturing Company, leased the theater space from the manufacturing company and operated it as a stage/movie theater until the mid-1930s when the theater suffered from financial difficulties and outside managers took over its operation. The building's performance spaces were among the many jazz venues lining Indiana Avenue, but the Walker building is only one still standing. Numerous musicians have performed at the Walker theater, including several Indianapolis natives and jazz musicians such as Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard, and J. J. Johnson, among others. The theater also hosted vaudeville acts and film screenings. During the mid-1950s "the building and its surrounding neighborhood began a gradual decline" as African-American middle-class families began moving to other areas of the city. The theater briefly closed in the 1960s.

"By the late 1970s the Walker Building stood nearly abandoned" and faced demolition, with only Walker Manufacturing Company remaining housed in the building. A "group of Indianapolis citizens recognized the structure's rich history" and began a project to preserve the aging building. Although the exact date is not known, it is believed that the theater remained closed from 1978 or 1979 until its restoration was completed and it reopened in 1988.

The Madam Walker Building Urban Life Center, an incorporated not-for-profit organization that formed in 1979, "purchased the building from the Walker Manufacturing Company and began planning for its restoration" with the intention of reestablishing the facility as a cultural center and encouraging economic enterprise. The site was listed on the Indiana Register of Historic Sites and Structures and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. In 1982 the organization's articles of incorporation were amended to reflect its new name, the Madam Walker Urban Life Center.^{[citation needed]}

The first phase of the restoration, which housed offices and the Grand Casino Ballroom, was completed in 1983. A $2.5 million capital campaign raised funds to restore the Walker Theatre with a present-day seating capacity of 935. The influence of African art forms in A'Lelia Walker's original design concept is apparent throughout the restored theatre. Financial support for the restoration came from Lilly Endowment and others donors. In October 1988, the Walker Theatre reopened in the fully restored Walker Building under the management of the Madam Walker Urban Life Center. The Urban Life Center also collaborated on two office structures along Indiana Avenue: Walker Plaza, built in 1989, and 500 Place, which was completed in 1992. The building was designated as a National Historic Landmark on July 17, 1991. In 1996 the Madam Walker Urban Life Center was renamed the Madam Walker Theatre Center to better reflect the organization's purpose.

Indiana University and Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis announced in early 2018 its partnership with the Madam Walker Theatre Center to preserve and restore the historic building. A grant of more than $15.3 million from the Lilly Endowment will provide the funding for the building's renovation and its transitional operations. The facility will also be renamed the Madam Walker Legacy Center.