Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) founded Tuskegee Normal School (now Tuskegee University) in 1881 to train African Americans as teachers, skilled laborers and farmers in the impoverished, segregated Reconstruction-era South. By 1899 Tuskegee was financially secure and internationally known, and Washington commissioned a Queen Anne-style home, The Oaks (Old Montgomery Rd.; guided tours depart from visitor center), for his family.