The Burnt Place

The Burnt Place. . At the time we occupied the place there were standing upon it a cabin, formerly used as the dining room, an old kitchen, a stable, and an old hen-house. Within a few weeks we had all of these structures in use. , Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery , You are standing at The Burnt Place, the heart of Tuskegee Institute. Soon after arriving in Tuskegee in 1881, Booker T. Washington purchased an abandoned 100-acre plantation that was called The Burnt Place because the main house had been burned during the Civil War., Washington bought the property for $500 and made his first payment with $250 he borrowed from the personal savings of J. F. B. Marshall, treasurer of Hampton Institute, a Virginia school for blacks that Washington had attended., [Photo captions] , {Top right}: General Samuel C. Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute, recommended Washington as the first principal, or president, of the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers, later known as Tuskegee Institute., {Main photo}: Only a few buildings stood on The Burnt Place when Washington moved the school here from its temporary quarters in an abandoned church and shanty in the town of Tuskegee. The precise location of the original buildings is not known.