This lesson is part of the National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) program.
Introduction
Dr. Booker T. Washington was one of the most well-known orators in the United States and throughout the world during the Progressive Era. Dr. Booker Taliaferro Washington was born enslaved in 1858 or 1859 (exact date unknown) and gained his freedom via the Emancipation Proclamation. Dr. Washington went on to graduate from Hampton Institute and helped found Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1881.
In 1899 one of the most influential and modernized homes of its time was constructed from handmade bricks and salient oak wood: “The Oaks." The Oaks was built as the home of Dr. Booker T. Washington on the grounds of Tuskegee Institute, now known as Tuskegee University. During its construction the architect Robert R. Taylor, the first African American to graduate from M.I.T., wanted to create what one would call a “miniature Victorian themed mansion" for the first principal of Tuskegee Institute Normal and Industrial Institute to reside. Prior, Dr. Washington had lived in a modest frame home on campus. The Oaks has a total of eight bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a sauna. It is one of the major attractions on the campus of Tuskegee University.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
