to academic and industrial
class-rooms; in the second was an assembly-room, where devotions and
public exercises for the whole school were held, while the third was
given up to dormitories.

From this small beginning has grown the present extensive plant at
Tuskegee, comprising 2,300 acres of land, on which are located 123
buildings of all kinds devoted to the uses of the institution. Some idea
of the impression which the size of the school makes upon one who sees
it for the first time may be gathered from the remark of a Northern
visitor, who, upon returning to his home from a trip through the South,
was asked by a friend if he had seen "Booker Washington's school."
"School?" he replied. "I have seen Booker Washington's city."

About 150 acres constitute the present campus, the rest of the
school-lands being devoted to farms, truck-gardens, pastures,
brick-yards, etc. Running through the grounds proper and extending the
entire distance of the farms for two or three miles is a driveway, on
either side of which, and on roads leading from it, are located the
buildings of the Institute. These, for the most part, are brick
structures, and have been built by the students themselves under the
direction of their instructors in the various building trades. The plans
for these buildings have been drawn in the architectural-drawing
division of the Institute. While not as ornate as the buildings of some
other institutions, they are substantial and well adapted to the uses
for which they are intended. The newer buildings, constructed in the
last ten years, are more artistic and imposing, showing great
improvement in matters of architectural design and finish. Not only have
the students performed the building operations that entered into the
construction of these buildings, but they have also manufactured the
brick, and have prepared much of the wooden and other materials that
were used. We sometimes speak of a man as self-made, but I have never
known another great educational institution that could be so described.
Tuskegee, itself, is distinctively self-made.

Porter Hall was completed and occupied in the spring of 1883. The
following year a brick building for girls was undertaken, and two years
later completed. This building, named Alabama Hall, is rectangular in
shape and four stories high. It contains a kitchen and dining-room,
reception-rooms, apartments of the Dean of the Woman's Department, and
sleeping-rooms. There was