Taylor, Robert R. (Robert Robinson), 1868-1942

Dates

• Existence: 1868 June 8 - 1942 December 13

Biography

Robert Robinson Taylor (1868 – 1942) was an architect, professor, and an MIT alumnus. He is widely regarded as the first Black student to attend, and later graduate, from MIT. Taylor is also considered to be the country's first academically trained Black architect. Taylor would enroll as a freshman at MIT in 1888, and be part of the graduating class of 1892, achieving a degree in Architecture (Course IV).

Robert Taylor was originally from Wilmington, North Carolina. His father, Henry Taylor, was the son of an enslaved woman, Maisley, and a white enslaver, Angus Taylor (1). Henry Taylor was born into slavery, however he was afforded certain liberties, and was trained as a carpenter-builder to support himself (4). He would form his own mercantile business in Wilmington, where he'd become a leading contractor and prominent member of the area's civic life. There, in Wilmington, he'd also marry Emily Still, a free woman of color, and Robert Taylor's mother.

As part of his early education, Robert Taylor attended the Williston School, and later graduated from the Gregory Normal Institute, in which afterward he would enter his father's building trade. After a brief gap from his graduation at the Gregory Institute, Taylor considered a liberal arts education, but ultimately decided to formalize his technical education in Boston at MIT, noted as the predominant architecture program at the time (2).

Attending MIT, Taylor earned honors in trigonometry, architectural history, differential calculus, and applied mechanics (2). His thesis, “Design for a Soldier’s Home”, focused on building recuperatory homes for aging Civil War veterans. The plans, eight pages, handwritten, reflected the style of large French institutions and the problems studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (many members of the architecture department at MIT had been taught there as well). (3)

After completing his degree, Taylor describes his own post-graduation activities by "[taking] up the practice of architecture and design[ing] several private and public buildings” (2). Soon afterward, Booker T. Washington would recruit Taylor to the Tuskegee Institute. Arriving in 1892, he became the Institute's first official architect and acted as a professor, teaching courses on industrial drawing. Taylor would rely heavily on the familiar structure of MIT as a model for developing his own teaching curriculum (2), eventually serving as the school’s vice principal and director of “mechanical industries”. (3)

As Tuskegee’s first official architect, Taylor is responsible for much of the campus’ buildings constructed before 1930. One of his most notable works being the Chapel – located on the Tuskegee grounds, finished in 1898 – a work Taylor considered to be one of his greater achievements. (3)

After establishing what he considered to be a steady curriculum, Taylor would take an absence from Tuskegee to pursue other professional opportunities. Most notably, Taylor worked as a draftsman for Charles W. Hopkinson architectural firm in Cleveland, OH. (3) Aside from this brief departure, Taylor spent most of his entire 40-year career at Tuskegee. He noted his role at the Institute, “could be of more service to the race in helping to develop this institution in its industrial side than in other places.” (2) In 1911, Taylor returned to MIT to speak at the school’s 50th anniversary celebration – the Congress of Technology. Of the fifty alumni and faculty present, Taylor was the sole Black speaker at the event. On April 11th, he delivered a paper entitled "The Scientific Development of the Negro". Taylor’s piece focused on the broad history of the Black experience, further laid out the challenges and other responsibilities facing Black people moving forward, and reflected on the importance of technical education and social empowerment. (2)

While at Tuskegee, Taylor would still complete professional work apart from the institute. In 1920, Taylor and fellow Tuskegee faculty member, Louis Hudison Persely (1890-1932), entered into an official design partnership together (1). The two architects produced buildings for the Institute, and took part in many other supervisory roles on outside construction projects. The partnership is thought to be the country's first established Black architectural firm (1). Taylor would also serve on the Mississippi Valley Flood Relief Commission appointed by President Herbert Hoover in 1927. Later, in 1929, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Lincoln University in Pennsylvania for his work establishing the Booker Washington Agricultural & Industrial Institute in Liberia (3). Additionally, In 1935, following his retirement, Taylor was appointed to the board of trustees of what is now Fayetteville State University (2).

As part of his personal life, Taylor married twice and had a total of five children. In 1898, he wed his first wife, Beatrice Rochon (1875 - 1906), an English schoolteacher from Louisiana. Taylor and Rochon would have four children together (Robert Rochon, Beatrice, Helen, and Edward Taylor). Their first son, Robert Rochon Taylor (1899 - 1957), was known as an American housing activist, and would become the first Black member of the Chicago Public Housing Authority (1). Years after Beatrice's sudden death, from what is believed to have been the result of a miscarriage, Taylor would remarry to Nellie Chestnut, also a schoolteacher, in 1912. Taylor would have one more child with Chestnut, Henry Taylor.

On December 13, 1942, Taylor collapsed while attending services at the aforementioned Tuskegee Chapel. He died that same day, in a building he himself designed, at the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital (2). As part of his legacy, MIT and the Tuskegee community have honored Taylor's pioneering life-time achievements. In 1994, MIT endowed a chair for minority faculty in Robert R. Taylor’s name. It is the first chair at the Institute named in honor of an African-American (3). The Robert R. Taylor fellowship was also introduced at MIT in 2010. In the same year, the Tuskegee Institute's architecture department was renamed the Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science (TSACS) (3).



1. Ellen Weise, Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington, (Montgomery, AL: NewSouth Books, 2011)

2. Clarence G. Williams, “From 'Tech' to Tuskegee: The Life of Robert Robinson Taylor, 1868-1942.” Blacks at MIT (January 1998)

3. “Robert R. Taylor: First Black Student at MIT.” MIT Black History (September 2022)

4. Catherine W. Bishir, "Taylor, Henry (1823-1891)" North Carolina Architects and Builders (2010)

Occupations

• Architects

Found in 5 Collections and/or Records: