Tuskegee Chapel, designed by Paul Rudolph and former Tuskegee Institute professors John Welch and Louis Fry, is known architecturally for its lack of right angles and its astonishing acoustics. Built in 1969, it replaced architect Robert R. Taylor's original chapel, built in 1896-98 with 1,200,000 bricks made and laid by Tuskegee students. Religion has always played a major role in the life of the school, and for many years students were required to attend daily vesper services and two Sunday services. The chapel also hosted major cultural events, including concerts by W. C. Handy, John Philip Sousa, and Duke Ellington and speeches by Mary McLeod Bethune, Martin Luther King, Jr., and four U.S. Presidents.