The Oaks

The Oaks. . The actual sight of a first-class house that a Negro has built is ten times more potent than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build, or perhaps could build. , Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery, The Oaks was the home of Booker T Washington. Twice a widower, Washington lived here with his third wife, Margaret Murray Washington and three children from his earlier marriages. In 1899 Tuskegee students and faculty built the house, designed by school architect Robert R. Taylor using bricks made at the institute., By that time Washington and his school were well known internationally, and he spent more than half of each year away from home giving speeches and raising funds. Mrs. Washington continued to live at The Oaks after her husband died here November 14, 1915. She died in 1925., [Photo caption] , Booker T. Washington sits outside The Oaks flanked by wife Margaret and daughter Portia and his sons Ernest (left) and Booker T. Jr. Washington's first wife, Fannie Smith, died in 1884, and his second wife, Olivia Davidson, died in 1889.