{{Short description|American architect (1869–1950)}} {{use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Robert Charles Bates | other_names = R. Charles Bates,<br/> Robert C. Bates | birth_date = January 27, 1869 | birth_place = Kingsville, Richland County, South Carolina, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1950|05|02|1869|01|27}} | death_place = Spencer, Tioga County, New York, U.S. | education = Claflin University (MA) | occupation = Architect, educator | known_for = Design of early campus buildings at Claflin University, possibly the first Black teacher of architecture at a HBU, possibly the first African-American architecture textbook author | spouse = Maybelle Dean | children = 5 }} '''Robert Charles Bates''' (January 27, 1869 – May 2, 1950),<ref name="The Ithaca Journal-1950">{{Cite news |date=1950-05-02 |title=Professor Bates Dies in Spencer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ithaca-journal-professor-bates-dies/172786301/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |work=The Ithaca Journal |pages=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> commonly known as '''R. Charles Bates''', was an American architect, educator, and textbook author.<ref name="The Times and Democrat-2014">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=December 10, 2014 |title=Vintage Orangeburg/Day 34: Claflin established by state charter to assist freed slaves |url=https://thetandd.com/news/vintage-orangeburg-day-34-claflin-established-by-state-charter-to-assist-freed-slaves/article_65c72a72-802a-11e4-8ff5-73f4baa521e6.html |url-access=limited |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=The Times and Democrat |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilkins |first=Craig |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRe4CwAAQBAJ |title=Diversity Among Architects: From Margin to Center |date=2016-03-10 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-47927-7 |pages=120 |language=en}}</ref> He was an African-American architect and helped design and build many of the Claflin University campus buildings, a historically black university (HBU) in South Carolina.<ref name="The Times and Democrat-2014" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-07-06 |title=Claflin University (1869- ) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/claflin-university-founded-1869/ |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=BlackPast.org |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1994-09-16 |title=Exhibition celebrates Claflin's 125th anniversary |pages=1 |work=The Times and Democrat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120063506/exhibition-celebrates-claflins-125th/ |access-date=2023-03-03}}</ref> He is thought to the first Black teacher of architecture at a HBU; and the first African- American author of an architecture textbook.<ref name="Bell-2014" /><ref name="Weiss-2012" />
== Early life and family == Robert Charles Bates was born on January 27, 1869, in Kingsville (or Kingville), a rural community outside of the city of Columbia in Richland County, South Carolina.<ref name="The Ithaca Journal-1950" /> Many of the details of his life have conflicting records. Some records show his birth as {{Circa|1872}}, in Columbia, South Carolina.<ref name="AA Architects">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Dreck Spurlock |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OaSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 |title=African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945 |date=March 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95629-5 |pages=38–40 |language=en |chapter=Robert Charles Bates |via=Google Books}}</ref>
It is thought that he took a correspondence course in mechanical drawing (possibly from Scranton Correspondence School in Scranton, Pennsylvania).<ref name="AA Architects" /> Bates studied architecture and engineering under Thomas William Silloway of Boston, from 1885 to 1893.<ref name="Tome School For Boys-1912" /> He attended Claflin University's Normal School (which was connected to the University of South Carolina at the time) to become a teacher, and graduated with a MA degree in 1888.<ref name="The Ithaca Journal-1950" /><ref name="AA Architects" /><ref name="Walker Evans & Cogswell Co. Printers-1890">{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112110177083&seq=45&q1=Bates |title=Annual Catalog of Claflin College (incorporated Claflin University) and announcements 1889/90–1897/98 |publisher=Walker Evans & Cogswell Co. Printers |year=1890 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |pages=10, 36–37 |via=Annual catalog of Claflin College: (incorporated Claflin University) and announcements 1889/90–1897/98, HathiTrust|type=Catalogue and register}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Neufeld |first=Rob |date=2018-02-25 |title=History of Claflin University |url=https://thetandd.com/library/history-of-claflin-university/article_b5587942-c895-5ca8-a1a9-bb1ae530c703.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191106191923/https://thetandd.com/library/history-of-claflin-university/article_b5587942-c895-5ca8-a1a9-bb1ae530c703.html |archive-date=2019-11-06 |access-date=2018-02-26 |work=Asheville Citizen-Times}}</ref><ref name="Tome School For Boys-1912">{{Cite book |last= |first= |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xs72fK_-ro0C&pg=PA9 |title=Tome School for Boys |date=1912 |publisher=Tome School For Boys |page=9 |language=en |chapter=Robert Charles Bates, M.A.}}</ref>
Bates married Maybelle Dean from Elmira, New York, and together they had five children.<ref name="The Ithaca Journal-1950" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1930-03-27 |title=Samuel Dean of Horseheads Is Summoned |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/elmira-star-gazette-samuel-dean-of-horse/172788398/ |access-date=2025-05-21 |work=Elmira Star-Gazette |pages=15 |via=Newspaper.com}}</ref>
== Career == He was appointed in 1888 as a professor at Claflin University, and as the superintendent of manual training in carpentry, drafting, and architecture (which included various titles held), and his selection for the role had been determined by the Freedmen's Aid Society and the Southern Education Society.<ref name="AA Architects" /><ref name="Walker Evans & Cogswell Co. Printers-1890" /><ref name="Tome School For Boys-1912" /> By fall of 1890, Bates was teaching architectural drawing at Claflin, and is believed to be the first Black teacher of architecture at a HBU.<ref name="AA Architects" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Suggs |first=Ernie |title=A dozen things you need to know about Claflin University |language=English |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |url=https://www.ajc.com/news/local-education/dozen-things-you-need-know-about-claflin-university/lHggYzCuWSurPqlYiHFQYL/|date=July 30, 2015 |access-date=2023-03-03 |issn=1539-7459}}</ref><ref name="Weiss-2012">{{Cite book |last=Weiss |first=Ellen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGYKEFz8Cd0C |title=Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An African American Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington |date=2012-01-01 |publisher=NewSouth Books |isbn=978-1-58838-248-1 |pages=48–49 |language=en}}</ref> Two years later he published a textbook based on his class lectures, it may be the first architecture book authored by an African American.<ref name="AA Architects" /><ref name="Bell-2014">{{Cite book |last=Bell |first=Carla Jackson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DmctBAAAQBAJ |title=Space Unveiled: Invisible Cultures in the Design Studio |date=2014-08-01 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-65911-2 |pages=18 |language=en}}</ref>
In 1895 until 1896, he travelled for one year and studied in technical schools across Europe.<ref name="Tome School For Boys-1912" />
Bates moved to Upstate New York in order to start the manual training department and teach mechanical drawing at Elmira Reformatory, from 1897 to 1900.<ref name="The Ithaca Journal-1950" /><ref name="AA Architects" /> Followed by teaching vocational trade at the Tome School for Boys (later Jacob Tome Institute) in Port Deposit, Maryland.<ref name="AA Architects" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1908-12-14 |title=Succeeds Dr. F. R. Lane |pages=10 |work=The Baltimore Sun |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/120063600/succeeds-dr-f-r-lane/ |access-date=2023-03-03}}</ref><ref name="Tome School For Boys-1912" /> He remained at Tome School until his retirement in 1940. Bates died on May 2, 1950, in a nursing home in Spencer, New York.<ref name="The Ithaca Journal-1950" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1950-05-03 |title=Deaths Elsewhere: Prof. Robert Charles Bates |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/elmira-star-gazette-deaths-elsewhere-pr/172788474/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |work=Elmira Star-Gazette |pages=14 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
Bates' profile was included in the biographical dictionary ''African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865–1945'' (2004) by Dreck Spurlock Wilson. However, many of the biographical details of Bates's life in Wilson's book were unknown or uncertain at the time of publishing, including the circumstances of hisn death.<ref name="AA Architects" />
== Publications ==
* {{Cite book |last=Bates |first=R. Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mCl9NeXCqPYC |title=The Elementary Principles of Architecture and Building |publisher=Press of Geo. H. Ellis |year=1892 |location=Boston, Massachusetts}}
== Works == * T. Willard Lewis Chapel (1890) at Claflin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina<ref name="AA Architects" /><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Tisdale |first1=Danica C. |last2=Glover |author2-link=Vivian Glover|first2=Vivian |date=2017 |title=Notable Alumni |url=http://www.claflin.edu/docs/default-source/default-document-library/claflin_university_history_book_2017-18.pdf?sfvrsn=fbd73b0e_0/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180421030934/http://www.claflin.edu/docs/default-source/default-document-library/claflin_university_history_book_2017-18.pdf?sfvrsn=fbd73b0e_0/ |archive-date=April 21, 2018 |website=Claflin University}}</ref> * Fisk Building (main building, 1899) the north and south towers at Claflin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina (destroyed by a fire in 1913)<ref name="AA Architects" /><ref name="The Times and Democrat-2014" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=F. Erik |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hOdLXJz7hyUC |title=Historically Black Colleges and Universities: An Encyclopedia |last2=Starks |first2=Glenn L. |date=2011-09-30 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-39415-7 |pages=52 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hill |first=Lauritza Salley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sI4ZIKYB7HMC |title=African Americans of Orangeburg County |date=2013 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-9880-2 |pages=24 |language=en}}</ref> * Fisk Building (main building, 1900) classroom annex at Claflin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina (destroyed by a fire in 1913)<ref name="AA Architects" /> * John F. Slater Manual training building at Claflin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina<ref name="AA Architects" />
== See also == * African-American architects * Robert Robinson Taylor, another early Black teacher of architecture at a HBU * William Wilson Cooke, African-American architect also at Claflin
== References == {{Reflist}}
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Category:1869 births Category:1950 deaths Category:19th-century American architects Category:20th-century American architects Category:African-American architects Category:American draughtsmen Category:American textbook writers Category:Claflin University alumni Category:Claflin University faculty Category:People from Elmira, New York Category:People from Port Deposit, Maryland Category:People from Richland County, South Carolina