The school, based in Roxbury, Boston, provided classes in a variety of artistic, social, and cultural topics, including art, dance, drama, music, and costuming.
Lewis founded the school with the intention of promoting "programs of cultural enrichment for the benefit of deprived children" in Roxbury, Dorchester and throughout the Greater Boston area.
Her work with the African-American community in the arts, as well as her dedication to social service, resulted in her being one of the first recipients of the MacArther Fellows Grant in 1981.
In 1983 she received a Presidential Medal for the Arts, the highest civilian award, from President Ronald Reagan.
Lewis founded the school to provide African-American students and adults in the Boston area with an education in the arts.
At the time of incorporation, Elma Lewis was the secretary, Ruth Batson served as the chairman, and Darnley Corbin was acting treasurer.
[9] By 1955, the school's attendance outgrew its rented space and the program relocated to 449 Blue Hill Avenue.
But, located between a store and a "questionable social club," the Blue Hill space was undesirable for the long term.
The following year, the ELSFA moved to the former home of Congregation Mishkan Tefila, on the corner of Elm Hill Avenue and Seaver Street.
Throughout its run, the Playhouse often featured major celebrities, including composers and musicians Duke Ellington and Babatunde Olatunji.
"[12] The ELSFA began the Technical Theater Training Program (TTP) at Massachusetts Correctional Institution (MCI), Norfolk, during July 1970.
During the early years, ten inmates collaborated and wrote a book titled Who Took the Weight: Black Voices from Norfolk Prison (1972).
Others were cast in such Broadway productions as Ben Franklin Goes to Paris, and Golden Boy, the latter starring Sammy Davis Jr. American novelist Danzy Senna, attended the school as a child in the late 1970s.
In 1967, while classes were not in session, the ELSFA was funded "by donations provided through the network of Elwood McKenny, the presiding justice of the Roxbury District Court."
(The JSL consisted of a few thousand people who had left the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in Boston and other cities, over disagreement about tactics.)