Williamsburg Bray School
School for Black children in Virginia, United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Williamsburg Bray School was a school for free and enslaved Black children founded in 1760 in Williamsburg, Virginia.[1] Opened at Benjamin Franklin's suggestion in 1760, the school educated potentially hundreds of students until its closure in 1774.[2] The house it first occupied is believed to be the "oldest extant building in the United States dedicated to the education of Black children".[2][3]
Constructed in 1760 by Dudley Digges, the structure has also been known as the Dudley Digges House and Bray-Digges House.[4][note 1] Bought by Methodist missionaries in the mid-1920s, the building was renovated and renamed Brown Hall. Its colonial origins not visible though known, the structure was not purchased by John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s Colonial Williamsburg project, but was instead acquired by the College of William & Mary in 1930. The building and its additions were moved to William & Mary's campus, eventually housing the college's military science and ROTC programs from 1980 until 2021. After studies and an inventory were performed,[6]: 3–5 the building was again moved in February 2023 to Colonial Williamsburg's historic area.[7]