African American Pioneering Architects

 

The first and foremost person Vinson researched was Robert Robinson Taylor (1868-1942). He was the first known accredited Architect who spent 41 years in service to Tuskegee Institute. Taylor was the first African American to enroll in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After graduating in 1892 he worked for Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute and is credited for helping build 45 campus buildings and drew architectural plans for others.

 

Walter T. Bailey (1882-1941)

 

Walter T. Bailey was the first African American Architect licensed in Illinois and the first African American to graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne. In 1905 he was appointed the head of the Mechanical Industries Department at Tuskegee. He designed and help build White Hall.

 

Wallace Augustus Rayfield (1874-1941)

While attending Howard University, Wallace Rayfield was an apprentice at an architectural firm. He received a graduate certificate from Pratt Institute and his Bachelors degree from Columbia University. After his graduation, Booker T. Washington offered him the Directorship of the Architectural and Mechanical Drawing Department at Tuskegee.  He sold mail order architectural plans nationwide and started his own practice in 1908.

 

William Sidney Pittman (1875-1958)

William Pittman was a bi-racial Architect and the son-in-law of Booker T. Washington. At the age of 17, he attended Tuskegee Institute then was awarded a scholarship to the all white Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. He completed an architectural and mechanical drawing degree in only three years rather than the standard five years.

 

John Anderson Lankford (1874-1946)

 

 John Lankford attended both the Lincoln Institute and the Tuskegee Institute. He received his BS from Shaw University and his MS from Morris Brown. He was the first licensed African American Architect in the state of Virginia.

 

 Julian F. Abele (1881-1950)

Julian Abele was the first African American student admitted to the University of Pennsylvania and went on to become one the most noteworthy Architect who designed Duke Chapel as well as most of the west campus of the university.

 

Vertner Woodson Tandy (1885-1949)

Vertner Tandy attended Cornell University and was the first registered African American Architect in the state of New York. His most famous work is Villa Lewaro, the home of millionaire Madame C. J. Walker.