Tuskegee University

Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama

Tuskegee University report to the Getty (PDF) 58.5MB

Founded in 1881, Tuskegee University gained national distinction and independence under the leadership of its first president, Booker T. Washington. Starting with thirty students in a single modest structure, Tuskegee University now accommodates nearly 4,000 students in five colleges on its 5,000 acres, which includes the main campus, a farm, forestland, and an historic airfield. The core of the campus is now listed as a National Historic Landmark District. Tuskegee will prepare an overall preservation plan for the historic structures, landscapes, and sites on its main campus and focus in-depth on preservation planning for five of its most historic structures built between 1893 and 1902.

Tuskegee University received a Getty grant in 2006 for $115,000 to support campus heritage planning.

Historic Designation(s): Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site (National Register of Historic Places, National Historic Landmark); Rockefeller Hall Bath House, Tuskegee Institute, Carver Museum, The Oaks, Foundry and Blacksmith Shop (Historic American Building Survey).

Report Summary

Purpose: Tuskegee will prepare an overall preservation plan for the historic structures, landscapes, and sites on its main campus and focus in-depth on preservation planning for five of its most historic structures built between 1893 and 1902.

Historic Designation: The core of the 5,000-acre campus is listed as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Landmarks (initially for the connection with Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver).

Founded in 1881 as Tuskegee Normal [teachers’] School, on the property of a former cotton plantation. Tuskegee University gained national distinction and independence under the leadership of its first president, Booker T. Washington. Starting with 30 students in a single modest structure, Tuskegee University now accommodates nearly 4,000 students in five colleges on its 5,000 acres that include the main campus, a farm, forestland, and an historic airfield. Tuskegee occupies the geographic center of African-American slavery. The school is private but receives state appropriations.

Architecture and campus layout were designed by: Robert R. Taylor, the first professionally trained African-American architect and the first African-American MIT graduate. Also William Brown, John H. Washington, Issac Newton Stokes, John K. Woods, William Pittman, William A. Hazel, Walter Franz, Edward C. Miller, Paul Rudolph, Louis Persley, Ehrenkrantz Group, Tonte Peters, plus William, Johnson Engineers and Hickerson Fowlkes Architects. Landscape designers include David A. Williston and Edward Pryce.

Campus plans:

Campus plan (1905, English Landscape style, designed by David A. Williston)
Topographic campus map (1911, designed by Walter Franz)
Development Plan (1930, designed by Robert R. Taylor and Louis Persley)
Campus Master Plan (1948, designed by David A. Williston)
Campus Master Plan (1952, designed by Edward Pryce)
Campus Master Plan (1950’s, designed by Paul Rudolph and Edward Pryce)
National Park Service Comprehensive Plan (1979)
Campus Master Plan (1987, designed by Ehrenkrantz Group, with Edward Pryce and William, Russell, Johnson Engineers)
Campus Master Plan (1989, designed by Tonte Peters, Physical Plant Department)
Campus Master Plan (1998, designed by Hickerson, Fowlkes Architects)

Planning Process

Gather information on evolution of the campus, design/construction/alteration of campus buildings, and change in the campus population
Historic research on school’s role in education of African-American architects
Apply Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation to the campus buildings, determining 9 historic buildings
Recommend preservation/rehabilitation of the 9 designated buildings

Outcomes: Products

Condition assessments for 9 historic buildings, contributory to the existing historic site or eligible for individual status as a historic site
Biography of architect Robert R. Taylor
Chronology of education for African-American architects
Multiple plant lists, following recommendations of various designers
Illustrated inventory--thumbnail descriptions of campus buildings
Public laws authorizing designation and Park Service acquisition of the campus historic site

Outcomes: Policies and Plans

Give priority to now-empty building sites when choosing sites for new construction
Review/update information in the National Register
Consider the creation of a second Historic District
Restore campus planning role for head of the Architecture Department
Protect the campus integrity by replacing contracted designers with in-house campus and landscape architects
Extrapolate from recommendations for the 9 historic buildings to create campus-wide guidelines for rehabilitation and preservation

Unique features:

Clarity, for example: “The story of an historic building is told through the architecture of the building and/or through the spaces that make up the building. If one is to understand the story that a building is trying to tell, there must be a high degree of integrity of the elements that tell that story. . . . A property can be said to convey its significance (as defined by the National Park Service) if the people who were a part of that history could recognize the building through time.”
Illustrated building inventory thumbnail descriptions of campus buildings

Advisors