Robert Robinson Taylor

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. 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. 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 Robert Robinson Taylor was born on June 8, 1868, in Wilmington, North Carolina. 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.

During his course of study at MIT, he talked in person on more than one occasion with Booker T. Washington. which is also an office building and entertainment venue, in Birmingham, Alabama.

He served for a period as vice-principal of Tuskegee, beginning in 1925. in 1935, the governor of North Carolina appointed Taylor to the board of trustees of what is now Fayetteville State University. After Beatrice died in 1906, Robert remarried in 1912 to Nellie Chestnutt; they had one child.

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. He was buried at the Pine Forest Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Projects Tuskegee Chapel (1898), which Taylor considered his best work.

Year Building Location Collaborator Status / notes 1893 Thrasher Hall 1924 Prince Hall Masonic Temple Birmingham, Alabama Louis H. Persley 1927 Sage Hall Tuskegee Institute Louis H. Persley 1928 Wilcox Trade Buildings Tuskegee Institute Architecture buildings 1931 Logan Hall Tuskegee Institute Louis H. Persley Old gym 1932 Armstrong Science Building Tuskegee Institute Louis H. Persley 1932 Hollis Burke Frissell Library Tuskegee Institute Louis H. Persley