The seat of Macon County, Tuskegee is best known as the home of Tuskegee University, founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington. The city itself was founded in 1833 by Gen. Thomas Simpson Woodward, a veteran of the Creek War of 1813-14. It remained a fairly small town until it was selected as the site for a new school for Black students. Leaders soon lured Washington from Virginia's Hampton Institute to serve as its leader. The school evolved into a major research university and community development leader with such outreach efforts as the Movable School. The world wars brought additional changes to the city, with the addition of the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital and the training facilities for the renowned Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. More infamous was Tuskegee Institute's involvement in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, although this shameful period in U.S. public health history fostered the creation of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care in Tuskegee. Thanks to the efforts of administrator Bess Bolden Walcott, the campus and many of its notable structures were designated as the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site in 1974, the only university campus so honored. Today, the history of the city and the university are told through its many cultural and historical institutions.