Rosenwald School Design

Professors at Tuskegee Institute, Robert Robinson Taylor, Director of the Department of Mechanical Industries, and William Augustus Hazel, of the Division of Architecture, created designs for a one-teacher Rosenwald school, two variations on a five-teacher school, plus an industrial building, a privy (outdoor toilet), and two residences for teachers.

Robert Robinson Taylor (June 8, 1868 – December 13, 1942), architect and educator, was the first African American graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1892), and the first professionally educated black architect in the United States. A native of Wilmington, NC, Taylor remained in architectural practice in the American South for more than forty years.

Robert accepted a position at Tuskegee Institute in the fall or winter of 1892. As second-in-command to Booker T. Washington, the Institute’s founder, Taylor was instrumental in both campus planning and inventing the school’s industrial curriculum. He designed many of the early buildings at Tuskegee between 1903 and 1932, and buildings at several other Historically black colleges and universities.

Robert learned construction from his father, Henry Taylor, a former slave whose white father and owner, Angus Taylor, had permitted him to pursue an independent trade. Freed in 1847, Henry was a successful carpenter–builder and businessman. Some projects of his included the first black Masonic lodge, Giblem Masonic Lodge, and the Bellamy Mansion, both located in Wilmington, NC. He died in 1891. His great-great-granddaughter, Valerie Jarrett, was a senior advisor to former president Barack Obama.

William Augustus Hazel (1854–1929) was an American architect, stained glass artist, educator, academic administrator, and civil rights activist. He was born on September 12, 1854, in Wilmington, NC, to free Black parents Margaret Ann Kellogg and Benjamin Gilette Hazel. His father had apprenticed with carpenter William Kellogg, another free Black person who later became his father-in law.

In 1872, Hazel apprenticed under John La Farge, a French-born stained glass craftsman. In January 1887, Hazel arrived in Saint Paul, Minnesota as a salesman for Tiffany and Company of New York, which caused a local stir because it was uncommon to see Black artists and designers in that city during that time period.

In 1909, Hazel joined the faculty in the mechanical industries department at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. While teaching, he supervised the design and build of five buildings on campus. He remained at the school for a decade.

The Negro Rural School and Its Relation to the Community

In 1915, Tuskegee published The Negro Rural School and Its Relation to the Community which featured different designs, from a single-teacher school up to a ten-teacher school, that could be affordably erected using basic carpentry skills. Mr. Robert R. Taylor and Mr. William A. Hazel executed the plans and specifications of the build­ings.

From the book: “Three types of schools are presented; namely, the one-teacher school, the central school and the county training school. Each has its function to perform both in the community and in the county at large. It is highly probable that for a long time to come, the majority of negro schools will be of the One-Teacher type. For this reason, it has been developed with a great deal of care.”

Rosenwald Architectural Plan No. 20 was used for the Mars Hill Rosenwald school, which cost $2,093. The Industrial Room was omitted. Rosenwald monies for $750 came in the summer of 1929. That fall, the first class was taught in the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School.

View the book online at books.google.com/books/about/The_Negro_Rural_School_and_Its_Relation.html?id=SbM-AQAAMAAJ