Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, National historic site in Macon County, Alabama, US
Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site is a nationally protected historic site on the campus of Tuskegee University in Macon County, Alabama. The site includes historic brick buildings, Booker T. Washington's home known as The Oaks, and the George Washington Carver Museum, which serves as the visitor center.
The site traces back to 1881, when Booker T. Washington was hired to lead a new school for African American teachers in Macon County. Classes started in a small wooden shack before the school moved to a farm where students built many of the campus structures themselves.
The name "Tuskegee" comes from a Native American word referring to the people who originally lived in this region of Alabama. Today, the school that grew from this place still operates as a university, and students can be seen walking the same paths past the same brick buildings where history was made.
Admission is free, and the main stops, the Carver Museum and The Oaks, are open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Arriving early is a good idea if you want to join a ranger-led tour of The Oaks, as spots can fill up.
The George Washington Carver Museum was originally built in 1915 as a laundry facility and only became a museum decades later. Henry Ford funded its transformation, and the building opened as a museum in 1941.
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