f that
quality should be erected by a builder of proved reputation. After much
delay I was permitted to proceed. I began with ten "green" boys, and
they, under my direction as I worked side by side with them, did all of
the work except the hanging of the window-sashes, doors, etc. I had
outside help in doing this part of the finishing. The building is a real
pride to all of us here. It is 36 feet by 78 feet, 2-1/2 stories high,
has 22 sleeping-rooms, a splendidly arranged dining-room, 36 feet by 36
feet, and cost $3,200. No one, hereabouts at least, now doubts that I
can build anything I say I can. I am glad that so soon after beginning
the work here I was able to prove the claims of my Tuskegee instructors
as to my fitness for the position for which they had recommended me.

Unfortunately, before I had completed the dormitory for girls, a fire
destroyed our main school building with the contents. This fire left us
without class-rooms. We took refuge in the Carpenter Shop, and held
classes there until money was secured with which to build a
training-school for the lower grades. This latter building I also put up
entirely with student labor. It contains three large rooms, each 25 feet
by 30 feet. The appointments in every way accord with approved hygienic
laws. Dr. Wallace Buttrick, Executive Secretary of the General Education
Board, spoke complimentarily of the building when he saw it, as one of
the few in the State he had seen that met all the requirements of a
class-room. We were able to build it for $1,600.

Even during the construction of the training-school I was drawing the
plans for a large brick building to replace the one burned. My plans
were submitted to friends of the work in the North, and by the time we
had finished the training-school we had money enough to begin the
brickwork on the new building. By April, 1903, the brickwork was
complete, and as we had no additional money we were compelled to allow
the building to stand until June, 1904, at which time we were able to
resume.

My boys did all of the woodwork, did the hod-carrying, and most of the
unskilled labor. The building cost $8,000, and is 86 feet 8 inches by 52
feet 8 inches in its dimensions, is 2-1/2 stories high, and has a deckle
roof with dormer windows. The chapel is on the first floor, 6
recitation-rooms on the second floor, and 13 sleeping-rooms for boys on
the one-half third-story floor. A basement for storage purposes, 25 feet
by 50 fe