History burns with barn

By Kevin Taylor
Montgomery Advertiser
AGING TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS

Here is a list of the 17 buildings on the Tuskegee University campus that are still in use and predate the Dairy Barn, which was built in 1918. All of these buildings have been remodeled.

Thrasher Hall: Part of education department

Band Cottage: Tuskegee University's Marching Crimson Piper Band

Carnegie Hall: Student services and financial aid

Dorothy Hall: Part of the Kellogg Conference Center

Administration building

John D. Rockefeller Hall: Women's dorm

E. Julia Emery Halls: Single-living dorms for men and women, four buildings

Frederick Douglass Hall: Women's dorm

James Tantum Hall: Women's dorm

The Oaks: Home of Booker T. Washington and part of the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site

Elizabeth Millbank Hall: Agriculture building

Alexander Moss White Hall: Women's dorm

Charles Thompkins Hall Cafeteria and student union

George Washington Carver Museum

Monte Faison decided to attend Tuskegee University for its historical significance and for its historic buildings, some of which were constructed almost 100 years ago.

"That's just part of the tradition to Tuskegee," Faison explained. "The buildings may look old from the outside, but they are modernized on the inside."

Some of the older buildings on campus still are serving the students, faculty and staff of the university. One of those buildings, however, is just a shell after a fire destroyed it Thursday afternoon.

The 86-year-old Dairy Barn was part of the agriculture program at Tuskegee.

Tuskegee Fire Marshal Willie J. Smith has yet to determine the cause of the blaze, which was reported about 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The Tuskegee University Office of Public Safety and Security indicated the fire may have started in the ceiling of the building.

The Dairy Barn has been decommissioned since the 1970s. There are 21 buildings on campus that predate the Dairy Barn's construction date of 1918, according to university archivist Cynthia Wilson. Seventeen of those 21 buildings are currently being used, while the other four are scheduled for remodeling.

Eight of the 17 buildings older than the Dairy Barn are used for student housing, but the students say they feel safe in their dorms.

"I don't live in one of the older dorms on campus, but it certainly isn't new either," said Lyndsy Gholson, a freshman from Sacramento, Calif.

"But I do feel safe and secure in the dorms," Gholson said.

In its day, the Dairy Barn was used to house dairy cows for milking, said Wilson.

It eventually housed the veterinary department until it became a school in itself in the 1940s.

The Dairy Barn was built in 1918 and was used as part of the agriculture program in Tuskegee.

-- Kevin Taylor Advertiser

The Dairy Barn had two feed silos on the front and the side of the building, which were built with the structure.

Another silo was built on the west side of the building in 1937, and an additional one was put in the back of the building in 1970.

Wilson said the west wing of the building was remodeled in 1955, and was home to more than 10 head of milking cows until the 1970s, when the cows were moved to the university's farm on Franklin Road.

Leslie V. Porter, Tuskegee's vice president for business, said all of the active buildings on campus are up to the fire code.