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{{short description|American architect}}
{{Short description|American architect (1868–1942)}}
{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name =Robert Robinson Taylor
| name = Robert Robinson Taylor
| image =Robert R Taylor c1906.jpg
| image = Robert R Taylor c1906.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| image_size = 200px
| birth_name =
| birth_name =
| birth_date ={{birth date|1868|6|8}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1868|6|8}}
| birth_place =[[Wilmington, North Carolina]]
| birth_place = [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], U.S.
| death_date ={{death date and age|1942|12|13|1868|6|8}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1942|12|13|1868|6|8}}
| death_place =[[Tuskegee, Alabama]]
| death_place = [[Tuskegee, Alabama]], U.S.
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| nationality =
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| other_names =
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| nationality =
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| known_for =
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| other_names =
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| education = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
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| known_for =
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| employer =
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| education =[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
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| occupation = Architect
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| employer =
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| occupation =Architect
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| successor =
* Beatrice Rochon Taylor
| party =
* Nellie Chestnut Taylor
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| boards =
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| spouse =Beatrice Rochon Taylor<br />Nellie Chestnut Taylor
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| children =5
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| parents =Henry Taylor<br />Emily Still
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| relatives =[[Robert Rochon Taylor]] <small>(son)</small><br /> [[Barbara T. Bowman]] <small>(granddaughter)</small><br />[[Valerie Jarrett]] <small>(great-granddaughter)</small>
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'''Robert Robinson Taylor''' (June 8, 1868 &ndash; December 13, 1942) was an American architect and educator. Taylor was the first African-American student enrolled at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT), and the first accredited African-American architect when he graduated in 1892.<ref name="encyclopedia">[[Ellen Weiss (academic)|Ellen Weiss]], [http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3252 Robert Robinson Taylor], [[Encyclopedia of Alabama]]</ref> He was an early and influential member of the [[Tuskegee Institute]] faculty.
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| parents = [[Henry Taylor (carpenter)|Henry Taylor]]<br />Emily Still
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| relatives = [[Robert Rochon Taylor]] <small>(son)</small><br /> [[Barbara T. Bowman]] <small>(granddaughter)</small><br />[[Valerie Jarrett]] <small>(great-granddaughter)</small>
}}
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'''Robert Robinson Taylor''' (June 8, 1868 &ndash; December 13, 1942) was an American architect and educator. Taylor was the first [[African Americans|African-American]] student enrolled at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT), and the first accredited African-American architect when he graduated in 1892.<ref name="encyclopedia">Weiss, Ellen. [http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3252 Robert Robinson Taylor], [[Encyclopedia of Alabama]]</ref> He was an early and influential member of the [[Tuskegee Institute]] faculty.


A native of [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], Taylor remained in architectural practice in the [[American South]] for over forty years. He designed many of the early buildings of the Tuskegee Institute, and at several other [[historically black colleges|Historically black colleges and universities]]. As second-in-command to [[Booker T. Washington]], the Tuskegee Institute's founder, Taylor was instrumental in both campus planning and inventing the school's industrial curriculum.
A native of [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], Taylor remained in architectural practice in the [[American South]] for more than forty years. He was part of what was possibly the nation's first black architecture firm, Taylor and Persley, a partnership founded in July 1920 with [[Louis H. Persley]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Weiss |first=Ellen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGYKEFz8Cd0C |title=Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington |publisher=NewSouth Books |year=2012 |isbn=9781588382481 |pages=112, 140–142}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=History of Firsts |url=https://www.lincoln.edu/_files/_pdfs/Lincoln-Firsts.pdf |website=Lincoln University}}</ref> He designed many of the early buildings of the Tuskegee Institute, and at several other [[historically black colleges|Historically black colleges and universities]]. As second-in-command to [[Booker T. Washington]], the Tuskegee Institute's founder, Taylor was instrumental in both campus planning and inventing the school's industrial curriculum.


==Early life==
==Early life==
Robert Robinson Taylor was born on June 8, 1868, in [[Wilmington, North Carolina]].<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary">{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Clarence G.|date=13 January 1998|title=From 'Tech' to Tuskegee: The Life of Robert Robinson Taylor, 1868-1942|url=http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/blacks-at-mit/taylor.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/7963/20190702041158/https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/blacks-at-mit/taylor.html|archive-date=July 2, 2019|access-date=July 12, 2020|website=|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}</ref> His father, Henry Taylor, worked as a carpenter and businessman, born into [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] but freed in 1847 by his father and owner Angus Taylor. His mother, Emily Still, was the daughter of [[freedmen]] even prior to the Civil War.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> He left home for MIT in 1888, where he studied architecture.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> In June 1890 and again in September 1891, he was recommended for the Loring Scholarship, which he held for two consecutive academic years: 1890–1891 and 1892–1893.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Weiss|first=Ellen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGYKEFz8Cd0C&pg=PA12|title=Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington|date=2012|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=978-1-58838-248-1|pages=11|language=en}}</ref>
Robert Robinson Taylor was born on June 8, 1868, in [[Wilmington, North Carolina]].<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary">{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Clarence G.|date=13 January 1998|title=From 'Tech' to Tuskegee: The Life of Robert Robinson Taylor, 1868-1942|url=http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/blacks-at-mit/taylor.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/7963/20190702041158/https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/blacks-at-mit/taylor.html|archive-date=July 2, 2019|access-date=July 12, 2020|website=|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}</ref> His father, [[Henry Taylor (carpenter)|Henry Taylor]], worked as a carpenter and businessman, born into [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] but freed in 1847 by his father and owner Angus Taylor. His mother, Emily Still, was the daughter of [[freedmen]] even prior to the Civil War.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> He left home for MIT in 1888, where he studied architecture.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> In June 1890 and again in September 1891, he was recommended for the Loring Scholarship, which he held for two consecutive academic years: 1890–1891 and 1892–1893.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Weiss|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGYKEFz8Cd0C&pg=PA12|title=Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington|date=2012|publisher=NewSouth Books|isbn=978-1-58838-248-1|pages=11|language=en}}</ref>


During his course of study at MIT, he talked in person on more than one occasion with [[Booker T. Washington]].<ref name="mitlibrary"/> What Washington had in mind was for Taylor to develop the industrial program at Tuskegee and to plan and direct the construction of new buildings for the campus.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> At the MIT faculty meeting on May 26, 1892, Taylor was one of twelve students in Course IV, the architectural program, recommended for a degree.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> The class of 1892 was the largest on record since MIT's founding.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> After graduation Taylor did not head directly to Tuskegee. He finally accepted the Tuskegee offer in the fall or winter of 1892.<ref name="mitlibrary"/>
During his course of study at MIT, he talked in person on more than one occasion with [[Booker T. Washington]].<ref name="mitlibrary"/> What Washington had in mind was for Taylor to develop the industrial program at Tuskegee and to plan and direct the construction of new buildings for the campus.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> At the MIT faculty meeting on May 26, 1892, Taylor was one of twelve students in Course IV, the architectural program, recommended for a degree.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> The class of 1892 was the largest on record since MIT's founding.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> After graduation, Taylor did not head directly to Tuskegee. He finally accepted the Tuskegee offer in the fall or winter of 1892.<ref name="mitlibrary"/>


==Career==
==Career==
[[File:Roof construction by students at Tuskegee Institute.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Tuskegee students at work on one of Taylor's buildings (1902)]]
Taylor's first building project on the [[Tuskegee University]] campus was the Science Hall (Thrasher Hall) completed in 1893.<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary"/> The new Science Hall was constructed entirely by students, using bricks made also by students under Taylor's supervision.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> The project epitomized Washington's philosophy of instilling in Tuskegee students, the descendants of former enslaved Africans, the value and dignity of physical labor. It exemplified of the capabilities of African Americans in the building trades, and it underscored the larger potential of the manual training curricula being developed at Tuskegee.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> A number of other buildings followed, including the original Tuskegee Chapel, erected between 1895 and 1898, and The Oaks, built in 1899 as Tuskegee's presidential residence.<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary"/>
Taylor's first building project on the [[Tuskegee University]] campus was the Science Hall (Thrasher Hall) completed in 1893.<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary"/> The new Science Hall was constructed entirely by students, using bricks made also by students under Taylor's supervision.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> The project epitomized Washington's philosophy of instilling in Tuskegee students, the descendants of former enslaved Africans, the value and dignity of physical labor. It exemplified of the capabilities of African Americans in the building trades, and it underscored the larger potential of the manual training curricula being developed at Tuskegee.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> A number of other buildings followed, including the original Tuskegee Chapel, erected between 1895 and 1898, and The Oaks, built in 1899 as Tuskegee's presidential residence.<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary"/>


From 1899 to 1902, he returned to [[Cleveland, Ohio]], to work on his own and for the architectural firm of [[Charles W. Hopkinson]].<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary"/> Upon his return to Tuskegee from Cleveland in 1902, he was architect and director of "mechanical industries" until his retirement in the mid-1930s.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> To develop a sound curriculum at Tuskegee, both Washington and Taylor drew inspiration from MIT as a model.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> Taylor's own admiration for MIT as a model for Tuskegee's development was conveyed in a speech that he delivered at MIT in 1911.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> Taylor cited examples to the 1911 US Congress in a paper to illustrate the kinds of rigorous ideas, approaches, and methods that Tuskegee had adopted from MIT and successfully applied within the context of a black educational institution.<ref name="mitlibrary"/>
From 1899 to 1902, he returned to [[Cleveland, Ohio]], to work on his own and for the architectural firm of Charles W. Hopkinson.<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary"/> Upon his return to Tuskegee from Cleveland in 1902, he was architect and director of "mechanical industries" until his retirement in the mid-1930s.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> To develop a sound curriculum at Tuskegee, both Washington and Taylor drew inspiration from MIT as a model.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> Taylor's own admiration for MIT as a model for Tuskegee's development was conveyed in a speech that he delivered at MIT in 1911.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> Taylor cited examples to the 1911 US Congress in a paper to illustrate the kinds of rigorous ideas, approaches, and methods that Tuskegee had adopted from MIT and successfully applied within the context of a black educational institution.<ref name="mitlibrary"/>


Taylor also designed buildings that were not at Tuskegee. These include [[Carnegie library|Carnegie libraries]] at [[Wiley College]] in [[Marshall, Texas]], and at [[Livingstone College]] in [[Salisbury, North Carolina]]. With his later partner, the black architect [[Louis H. Persley]], he did large buildings at [[Selma University]] in [[Selma, Alabama]], and the [[Colored Masonic Temple]],<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3942|title=African American Prince Hall Masons in Alabama|website=Encyclopedia of Alabama}}</ref> which is also an office building and entertainment venue, in [[Birmingham, Alabama]].<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Weiss |first=Ellen |author-link=Ellen Weiss |title=Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington |url=http://www.newsouthbooks.com/bkpgs/detailtitle.php?isbn_solid=1588382486 |year=2011 |publisher=NewSouth Books |location=Montgomery |isbn= 978-1-58838-248-1 |pages= 114–115, 141–144}}</ref>
Taylor also designed buildings that were not at Tuskegee. These include [[Carnegie library|Carnegie libraries]] at [[Wiley College]] in [[Marshall, Texas]], and at [[Livingstone College]] in [[Salisbury, North Carolina]]. With his later partner, the black architect [[Louis H. Persley]], he did large buildings at [[Selma University]] in [[Selma, Alabama]], and the [[Colored Masonic Temple]],<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3942|title=African American Prince Hall Masons in Alabama|website=Encyclopedia of Alabama}}</ref> which is also an office building and entertainment venue, in [[Birmingham, Alabama]].<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Weiss |first=Ellen |author-link=Ellen Weiss |title=Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington |url=http://www.newsouthbooks.com/bkpgs/detailtitle.php?isbn_solid=1588382486 |year=2011 |publisher=NewSouth Books |location=Montgomery |isbn=978-1-58838-248-1 |pages=114–115, 141–144 |access-date=2013-01-18 |archive-date=2020-01-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200106043137/http://www.newsouthbooks.com/bkpgs/detailtitle.php?isbn_solid=1588382486 |url-status=dead }}</ref>


He served for a period as vice-principal of Tuskegee, beginning in 1925.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> In 1929, under the joint sponsorship of the [[Phelps Stokes Fund|Phelps-Stokes Fund]], the Liberian government, and Firestone Rubber, he went to [[Kakata]], [[Liberia]] to lay out architectural plans and devise a program in industrial training for the proposed [[Booker Washington Institute]] – "the Tuskegee of Africa."<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary"/> Robert Taylor served on the Mississippi Valley Flood Relief Commission, appointed by President [[Herbert Hoover]], and was chairman of the Tuskegee chapter of the [[American Red Cross]].<ref name="mitlibrary"/>
He served for a period as vice-principal of Tuskegee, beginning in 1925.<ref name="mitlibrary"/> In 1929, under the joint sponsorship of the [[Phelps Stokes Fund|Phelps-Stokes Fund]], the Liberian government, and Firestone Rubber, he went to [[Kakata]], [[Liberia]] to lay out architectural plans and devise a program in industrial training for the proposed [[Booker Washington Institute]] – "the Tuskegee of Africa."<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref name="mitlibrary"/> Robert Taylor served on the Mississippi Valley Flood Relief Commission, appointed by President [[Herbert Hoover]], and was chairman of the Tuskegee chapter of the [[American Red Cross]].<ref name="mitlibrary"/>


Following his retirement to his native [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], in 1935, the [[governor of North Carolina]] appointed Taylor to the board of trustees of what is now [[Fayetteville State University]].<ref name="mitlibrary"/> Moreover, in 1942, less than a decade after his retirement from Tuskegee, he wrote to the secretary of his MIT class indicating that he had just been released from treatment for an unspecified illness at the [[Mayo Clinic]] in [[Rochester, Minnesota]].<ref name="mitlibrary"/> "Thanks to a kind Providence and skillful physicians," he said, "I am much better now."<ref name="mitlibrary"/>
Following his retirement in 1933 to his native [[Wilmington, North Carolina]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Dreck Spurlock |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OaSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA548 |title=African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945 |date=March 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95629-5 |pages=548–554 |language=en |chapter=Robert Robinson Taylor (1868–1942) |via=Google Books}}</ref> in 1935, the [[governor of North Carolina]] appointed Taylor to the board of trustees of what is now [[Fayetteville State University]].<ref name="mitlibrary"/> Moreover, in 1942, less than a decade after his retirement from Tuskegee, he wrote to the secretary of his MIT class indicating that he had just been released from treatment for an unspecified illness at the [[Mayo Clinic]] in [[Rochester, Minnesota]].<ref name="mitlibrary"/> "Thanks to a kind Providence and skillful physicians," he said, "I am much better now."<ref name="mitlibrary"/>


==Personal life==
==Personal life==
In 1898, he married Beatrice Rochon Taylor.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> They had four children, one of whom, [[Robert Rochon Taylor]], became a noted housing advocate in Chicago.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> Beatrice's younger sister was teacher and pharmacist [[Etnah Rochon Boutte]].<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28763605/etnah_rochon_boutte_1924/ "Mrs. Kate Rochon Dead"] ''The New York Age'' (April 12, 1924): 2. via [[Newspapers.com]]</ref> After Beatrice died in 1906, Robert remarried in 1912 to Nellie Chestnutt; they had one child.<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Robert R. Taylor: First Black Student at MIT |url=https://www.blackhistory.mit.edu/story/robert-r-taylor |website=MIT Black History |publisher=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] |access-date=27 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref>
In 1898, he married Beatrice Rochon Taylor.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> They had four children, one of whom, [[Robert Rochon Taylor]], became a noted housing advocate in Chicago.<ref name="encyclopedia"/> Beatrice's younger sister was teacher and pharmacist [[Etnah Rochon Boutte]].<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28763605/etnah_rochon_boutte_1924/ "Mrs. Kate Rochon Dead"] ''The New York Age'' (April 12, 1924): 2. via [[Newspapers.com]]</ref> After Beatrice died in 1906, Robert remarried in 1912 to Nellie Chestnutt; they had one child.<ref name="encyclopedia"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Robert R. Taylor: First Black Student at MIT |url=https://www.blackhistory.mit.edu/story/robert-r-taylor |website=MIT Black History |publisher=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] |access-date=27 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref>


==Death==
== Death and legacy ==
He died on December 13, 1942, while attending services in the Tuskegee Chapel, the building that he considered his most outstanding achievement as an architect.<ref>[http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/blacks-at-mit/taylor.html Robert Robinson Taylor: Institute Archives &amp; Special Collections.] MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections</ref> He was buried at the [[Pine Forest Cemetery]] in Wilmington, North Carolina.<ref name="encyclopedia"/>
He died on December 13, 1942, while attending services in the Tuskegee Chapel, the building that he considered his most outstanding achievement as an architect.<ref>[http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/blacks-at-mit/taylor.html Robert Robinson Taylor: Institute Archives &amp; Special Collections.] {{Webarchive|url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/7963/20190702041158/https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/blacks-at-mit/taylor.html |date=2019-07-02 }} MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections</ref> He was buried at the Pine Forest Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina.<ref name="encyclopedia"/>

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His great-granddaughter, [[Valerie Jarrett]], was a senior advisor to former president [[Barack Obama]].


==Legacy==
The Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science at Tuskegee University is named for Taylor. The housing project in Chicago, [[Robert Taylor Homes]], was named after his son, Robert Rochon Taylor, a civic leader and former Chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority.
The Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science at Tuskegee University is named for Taylor. The housing project in Chicago, [[Robert Taylor Homes]], was named after his son, Robert Rochon Taylor, a civic leader and former Chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority.


The [[United States Postal Service|US Postal Service]] has a postage stamp with his likeness.<ref>https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f4/0b/d1/f40bd120ee5482f48bf5ba290844e3c2.jpg {{Bare URL image|date=March 2022}}</ref>
The [[United States Postal Service|US Postal Service]] has a postage stamp with his likeness.<ref>Black Heritage: [https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f4/0b/d1/f40bd120ee5482f48bf5ba290844e3c2.jpg Robert Robinson Taylor.]</ref>

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His great-granddaughter, [[Valerie Jarrett]], was a senior advisor to Former President [[Barack Obama]].


==Projects==
==Projects==
[[File:The chapel LCCN2008677117.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Tuskegee Chapel (1898), which Taylor considered his best work.]]
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*Huntington Hall (1900)
*Several buildings on the campus of [[Tuskegee Institute]], Tuskegee, Alabama (in order by descending completion date)
*Emery dormitories 4 buildings (1900)
*Dorothy Hall (1901) [[Tuskegee Institute]]
**Thrasher Hall (1893) Tuskegee Institute<ref name=":0" />
**Tuskegee Chapel (1898) Tuskegee Institute
**The Oaks (1898) Tuskegee Institute<ref name=":0" />
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**Huntington Hall (1900) Tuskegee Institute
**Emery dormitories (1900) four buildings at Tuskegee Institute
**Dorothy Hall (1901) Tuskegee Institute
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**Tantum Hall (1907) Tuskegee Institute
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**Tompkins Hall (1910) dining facility, Tuskegee Institute<ref name=":0" />
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**White Hall (1910) women's dormitory, Tuskegee Institute<ref name=":0" />
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**[[John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital]] (1913) Tuskegee Institute
**James Hall (1921) Tuskegee Institute, with Louis H. Persley
**Sage Hall (1927) Tuskegee Institute, with Louis H. Persley
**Logan Hall (1931) Tuskegee Institute old gym, with Louis H. Persley
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**Armstrong Science Building (1932) Tuskegee Institute, with Louis H. Persley
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**Hollis Burke Frissell Library (1932) Tuskegee Institute, with Louis H. Persley
*Alta Settlement House (1901), Cleveland, Ohio, with Charles W. Hopkinson<ref name=":0" />
*Women's Trades Building (1901)
*Women's Trades Building (1901)
*[[Carnegie Library]] (1901)
*[[Carnegie Library]] (1901)
*Administration Building (1902–03)
*Administration Building (1902–1903)
*Rockefeller Hall (1903)
*Rockefeller Hall (1903)
*Men's residence Hall (1904)
*Men's residence Hall (1904)
*Douglass Hall (1904)
*Douglass Hall (1904)
*Collis P. Huntington Memorial Building academic building(1904–05)
*Collis P. Huntington Memorial Building academic building (1904–1905)
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*Tantum Hall (1907)
*Milbank Agriculture Building (1909)
*Milbank Agriculture Building (1909)
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*[[The George Washington Carver Museum]] (1915), formerly laundry building at Tuskegee Institute
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*Tompkins Hall, dining facility (1910)
*King Administration Building (1920) [[Wiley College]] (now Wiley University), Marshall, Texas<ref name=":0" />
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*White Hall, women's dormitory (1910)
*Dinkins Memorial Building (1921), [[Selma University]], Selma, Alabama, with Louis H. Persley<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Dorris |first=Jesse |date=June 1, 2020 |title=10 Pioneering African American Architects and the Legacy Buildings They Designed |url=https://interiordesign.net/designwire/10-pioneering-african-american-architects-and-the-legacy-buildings-they-designed/ |access-date= |website=[[Interior Design (magazine)|Interior Design]] |language=en-US |issn=0020-5508}}</ref>
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*[[John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital]] (1913)
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*Prince Hall Masonic Temple (1924), Birmingham, Alabama; with Louis H. Persley<ref name="auto" />
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*Laundry, now [[The George Washington Carver Museum]] (1915)
*James Hall (1921)
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*Prince Hall Masonic Temple (1924)<ref name="auto"/>
*Sage Hall (1927)
*Wilcox Trade Buildings, architecture buildings (1928)
*Wilcox Trade Buildings, architecture buildings (1928)

*Logan Hall, old gym (1931)
== See also ==
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*Armstrong Science Building (1932)

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*Hollis Burke Frissell Library (1932)
* [[African-American architects]]
* [[Robert Charles Bates]], an early architecture teacher at [[Claflin University]]


==References==
==References==
Line 104: Line 115:
[[Category:1942 deaths]]
[[Category:1942 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Wilmington, North Carolina]]
[[Category:People from Wilmington, North Carolina]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni]]
[[Category:MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni]]
[[Category:MIT African-American alumni]]
[[Category:African-American architects]]
[[Category:African-American architects]]
[[Category:American architects]]
[[Category:19th-century American architects]]
[[Category:Fayetteville State University]]
[[Category:Fayetteville State University]]
[[Category:Tuskegee University faculty]]
[[Category:Tuskegee University faculty]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American people]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American people]]
[[Category:20th-century American architects]]

Latest revision as of 00:34, 16 November 2024

Robert Robinson Taylor
Born(1868-06-08)June 8, 1868
Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S.
DiedDecember 13, 1942(1942-12-13) (aged 74)
Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology
OccupationArchitect
Spouses
  • Beatrice Rochon Taylor
  • Nellie Chestnut Taylor
Children5
Parent(s)Henry Taylor
Emily Still
RelativesRobert Rochon Taylor (son)
Barbara T. Bowman (granddaughter)
Valerie Jarrett (great-granddaughter)

Robert Robinson Taylor (June 8, 1868 – December 13, 1942) was an American architect and educator. Taylor was the first African-American student enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the first accredited African-American architect when he graduated in 1892.[1] He was an early and influential member of the Tuskegee Institute faculty.

A native of Wilmington, North Carolina, Taylor remained in architectural practice in the American South for more than forty years. He was part of what was possibly the nation's first black architecture firm, Taylor and Persley, a partnership founded in July 1920 with Louis H. Persley.[2][3] He designed many of the early buildings of the Tuskegee Institute, and at several other Historically black colleges and universities. As second-in-command to Booker T. Washington, the Tuskegee Institute's founder, Taylor was instrumental in both campus planning and inventing the school's industrial curriculum.

Early life

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Robert Robinson Taylor was born on June 8, 1868, in Wilmington, North Carolina.[1][4] His father, Henry Taylor, worked as a carpenter and businessman, born into slavery but freed in 1847 by his father and owner Angus Taylor. His mother, Emily Still, was the daughter of freedmen even prior to the Civil War.[1] He left home for MIT in 1888, where he studied architecture.[1] In June 1890 and again in September 1891, he was recommended for the Loring Scholarship, which he held for two consecutive academic years: 1890–1891 and 1892–1893.[5]

During his course of study at MIT, he talked in person on more than one occasion with Booker T. Washington.[4] What Washington had in mind was for Taylor to develop the industrial program at Tuskegee and to plan and direct the construction of new buildings for the campus.[4] At the MIT faculty meeting on May 26, 1892, Taylor was one of twelve students in Course IV, the architectural program, recommended for a degree.[4] The class of 1892 was the largest on record since MIT's founding.[4] After graduation, Taylor did not head directly to Tuskegee. He finally accepted the Tuskegee offer in the fall or winter of 1892.[4]

Career

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Tuskegee students at work on one of Taylor's buildings (1902)

Taylor's first building project on the Tuskegee University campus was the Science Hall (Thrasher Hall) completed in 1893.[1][4] The new Science Hall was constructed entirely by students, using bricks made also by students under Taylor's supervision.[4] The project epitomized Washington's philosophy of instilling in Tuskegee students, the descendants of former enslaved Africans, the value and dignity of physical labor. It exemplified of the capabilities of African Americans in the building trades, and it underscored the larger potential of the manual training curricula being developed at Tuskegee.[4] A number of other buildings followed, including the original Tuskegee Chapel, erected between 1895 and 1898, and The Oaks, built in 1899 as Tuskegee's presidential residence.[1][4]

From 1899 to 1902, he returned to Cleveland, Ohio, to work on his own and for the architectural firm of Charles W. Hopkinson.[1][4] Upon his return to Tuskegee from Cleveland in 1902, he was architect and director of "mechanical industries" until his retirement in the mid-1930s.[4] To develop a sound curriculum at Tuskegee, both Washington and Taylor drew inspiration from MIT as a model.[4] Taylor's own admiration for MIT as a model for Tuskegee's development was conveyed in a speech that he delivered at MIT in 1911.[4] Taylor cited examples to the 1911 US Congress in a paper to illustrate the kinds of rigorous ideas, approaches, and methods that Tuskegee had adopted from MIT and successfully applied within the context of a black educational institution.[4]

Taylor also designed buildings that were not at Tuskegee. These include Carnegie libraries at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, and at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. With his later partner, the black architect Louis H. Persley, he did large buildings at Selma University in Selma, Alabama, and the Colored Masonic Temple,[6] which is also an office building and entertainment venue, in Birmingham, Alabama.[1][7]

He served for a period as vice-principal of Tuskegee, beginning in 1925.[4] In 1929, under the joint sponsorship of the Phelps-Stokes Fund, the Liberian government, and Firestone Rubber, he went to Kakata, Liberia to lay out architectural plans and devise a program in industrial training for the proposed Booker Washington Institute – "the Tuskegee of Africa."[1][4] Robert Taylor served on the Mississippi Valley Flood Relief Commission, appointed by President Herbert Hoover, and was chairman of the Tuskegee chapter of the American Red Cross.[4]

Following his retirement in 1933 to his native Wilmington, North Carolina,[8] in 1935, the governor of North Carolina appointed Taylor to the board of trustees of what is now Fayetteville State University.[4] Moreover, in 1942, less than a decade after his retirement from Tuskegee, he wrote to the secretary of his MIT class indicating that he had just been released from treatment for an unspecified illness at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.[4] "Thanks to a kind Providence and skillful physicians," he said, "I am much better now."[4]

Personal life

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In 1898, he married Beatrice Rochon Taylor.[1] They had four children, one of whom, Robert Rochon Taylor, became a noted housing advocate in Chicago.[1] Beatrice's younger sister was teacher and pharmacist Etnah Rochon Boutte.[9] After Beatrice died in 1906, Robert remarried in 1912 to Nellie Chestnutt; they had one child.[1][10]

Death and legacy

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He died on December 13, 1942, while attending services in the Tuskegee Chapel, the building that he considered his most outstanding achievement as an architect.[11] He was buried at the Pine Forest Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina.[1]

His great-granddaughter, Valerie Jarrett, was a senior advisor to former president Barack Obama.

The Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science at Tuskegee University is named for Taylor. The housing project in Chicago, Robert Taylor Homes, was named after his son, Robert Rochon Taylor, a civic leader and former Chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority.

The US Postal Service has a postage stamp with his likeness.[12]

Projects

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Tuskegee Chapel (1898), which Taylor considered his best work.
  • Several buildings on the campus of Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama (in order by descending completion date)
    • Thrasher Hall (1893) Tuskegee Institute[8]
    • Tuskegee Chapel (1898) Tuskegee Institute
    • The Oaks (1898) Tuskegee Institute[8]
    • Huntington Hall (1900) Tuskegee Institute
    • Emery dormitories (1900) four buildings at Tuskegee Institute
    • Dorothy Hall (1901) Tuskegee Institute
    • Tantum Hall (1907) Tuskegee Institute
    • Tompkins Hall (1910) dining facility, Tuskegee Institute[8]
    • White Hall (1910) women's dormitory, Tuskegee Institute[8]
    • John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital (1913) Tuskegee Institute
    • James Hall (1921) Tuskegee Institute, with Louis H. Persley
    • Sage Hall (1927) Tuskegee Institute, with Louis H. Persley
    • Logan Hall (1931) Tuskegee Institute old gym, with Louis H. Persley
    • Armstrong Science Building (1932) Tuskegee Institute, with Louis H. Persley
    • Hollis Burke Frissell Library (1932) Tuskegee Institute, with Louis H. Persley
  • Alta Settlement House (1901), Cleveland, Ohio, with Charles W. Hopkinson[8]
  • Women's Trades Building (1901)
  • Carnegie Library (1901)
  • Administration Building (1902–1903)
  • Rockefeller Hall (1903)
  • Men's residence Hall (1904)
  • Douglass Hall (1904)
  • Collis P. Huntington Memorial Building academic building (1904–1905)
  • Milbank Agriculture Building (1909)
  • The George Washington Carver Museum (1915), formerly laundry building at Tuskegee Institute
  • King Administration Building (1920) Wiley College (now Wiley University), Marshall, Texas[8]
  • Dinkins Memorial Building (1921), Selma University, Selma, Alabama, with Louis H. Persley[8][13]
  • Prince Hall Masonic Temple (1924), Birmingham, Alabama; with Louis H. Persley[6]
  • Wilcox Trade Buildings, architecture buildings (1928)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Weiss, Ellen. Robert Robinson Taylor, Encyclopedia of Alabama
  2. ^ Weiss, Ellen (2012). Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington. NewSouth Books. pp. 112, 140–142. ISBN 9781588382481.
  3. ^ "History of Firsts" (PDF). Lincoln University.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Williams, Clarence G. (13 January 1998). "From 'Tech' to Tuskegee: The Life of Robert Robinson Taylor, 1868-1942". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on July 2, 2019. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
  5. ^ Weiss (2012). Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington. NewSouth Books. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-58838-248-1.
  6. ^ a b "African American Prince Hall Masons in Alabama". Encyclopedia of Alabama.
  7. ^ Weiss, Ellen (2011). Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington. Montgomery: NewSouth Books. pp. 114–115, 141–144. ISBN 978-1-58838-248-1. Archived from the original on 2020-01-06. Retrieved 2013-01-18.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Wilson, Dreck Spurlock (March 2004). "Robert Robinson Taylor (1868–1942)". African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Routledge. pp. 548–554. ISBN 978-1-135-95629-5 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ "Mrs. Kate Rochon Dead" The New York Age (April 12, 1924): 2. via Newspapers.com
  10. ^ "Robert R. Taylor: First Black Student at MIT". MIT Black History. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  11. ^ Robert Robinson Taylor: Institute Archives & Special Collections. Archived 2019-07-02 at Archive-It MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections
  12. ^ Black Heritage: Robert Robinson Taylor.
  13. ^ Dorris, Jesse (June 1, 2020). "10 Pioneering African American Architects and the Legacy Buildings They Designed". Interior Design. ISSN 0020-5508.
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