This article discusses how Tuskegee University architecture and construction science and management students are simultaneously learning historic preservation skills and helping to rehabilitate their local community. In what aims to be one of the first projects of the university's new historic preservation program, students in the Robert Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science and Management (TSACS) are taking part in renovating the Drakeford House, one of eight historic homes along East Water Street and North Main Street on the north side of the city of Tuskegee. TSACS faculty and students will use both the Drakeford House and the Willcox E. Trades Building on campus as learning laboratories for observing and participating in preservation training as both structures undergo renovation. The school's long-term goal is to develop Centers for Workforce Development and Historic Preservation to advance the craft training skills of its students and the Tuskegee community at large. The center would help make Tuskegee a leader among Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in offering historic preservation skills through its undergraduate, research, and outreach programs.
Aragoni, Christen. “Welcome to Our House.” Liberal education.105, no. 2 (2019).