November 3, 2024
Restoration Underway: Oldest Black Schoolhouse In America From 18th-Century To Open As Museum
The Williamsburg Bray School will open its doors to the public as a historical education site next spring.
The oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children in the United States is set to open its doors as a historical site for the public in the spring of 2025. The Williamsburg Bray School in Virginia is being restored carefully by historians and construction crews, aiming to preserve the history of a building that educated hundreds of Black children, both enslaved and free, from 1760 to 1774. The schoolhouse is expected to open to the public in 2025.
Although restoration has been in the works for quite some time, the crews have finally finished restoring and furnishing a main room on the first floor and have moved on to the next one. Their work has revealed original flooring and walling from 1760 to 18th-century tool marks on some of the original planks and wood. The construction crew and restorers have also reported finding a fragment of a writing plate, letters written by people who attended the Williamsburg Bray School, and original ceramic work from the time.
Colonial Williamsburg’s historic tradespeople—including blacksmiths, weavers, and bookbinders—have been working to create replicas of items that would have originally furnished the school, all in preparation for its public opening. Using 18th-century techniques, they are crafting items like desks, chairs, and books to fill the Williamsburg Bray School.
Ahead of the public opening, the historic structure was formally dedicated, with several figures sharing insights into the building’s rich history.
Colonial Williamsburg’s Executive Director of Architectural Preservation, Matt Webster, told Smithsonian Magazine, “You’re walking on the floors they walked on in 1760. When you touch the bottom post on the stairs, the wear, the rounded edges, that’s years of bumping and touching. Those types of things are all over the buildings.”
Nicole Brown, an American Studies scholar at William & Mary, added, “The opening of the building is deeply significant, but the work does not stop when the building opens.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, a London-based charity opened the Williamsburg Bray School in 1760 at the recommendation of founding father Benjamin Franklin. During the school’s 14 years of operation, a white woman named Ann Wager acted as the only teacher in the building. Wager reportedly taught around 400 students aged 3 and 10, and roughly 90% of the children were still enslaved at the time of their schooling. Wager taught the kids to read and write, sew, and mend clothes with a faith-based curriculum that provided literacy to many enslaved people who were barred access to education before Williamsburg Bray School.
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