Williamsburg Bray School
[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".
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.
[10] During his 1756 visit and through correspondence with Williamsburg residents, Franklin became familiar with the college's ecclesiastical faculty and their religious education of Black students: Henry Compton, Bishop of London and first chancellor of the College of William & Mary, was a "powerful proponent for the salvation of black souls in America" and William Dawson, the Church of England rector of Bruton Parish Church and president of the College of William & Mary, had written to England in 1743 inquiring about school rules should a school for Black students be founded in Williamsburg.
[13]: 368, 372 [11]: 79 James Blair, William & Mary's founder and a Church of England missionary, had attempted to broaden the role of the college's Indian school at the Brafferton to include Black religious education through a 1699 resolution in the Virginia General Assembly.
[11]: 79 Ann Wager, a widow and admired teacher of white Williamsburg children, served as schoolmistress and oversaw the 25 to 30 Bray School students between 3 and 10 years old.
[18][note 3] Among those known to have sent enslaved children to attend the Bray School were tavern owners Christiana Campbell and Jane Vobe.
[10] Vobe sent two enslaved children to be educated by the Bray School, perhaps contributing to First Baptist Church-founder Gowan Pamphlet's literacy.
[20] Writing was a skill that could be taught from one enslaved person to another that could improve the chance of successful escape by forging passes permitting them to travel.
Harrell bequeathed the property to Edgar, Eugene, and Thomas Potts in 1904; it was sold to Alice P. Stryker in 1923, who added a two-story rear wing and gambrel roof.
[5]: 25 Lee Britt, the "dynamic" head of the Williamsburg Methodist Church's Woman’s Missionary Society,[6]: 4 identified the property as an ideal site for a girls' dormitory.
[5]: 27 While the building's character was considered evocative of the Colonial Revival and its domestic appearance praised, the house proved too small for the Methodists' aspirations.
[5]: 28 In the late 1980s, the college's military science and ROTC programs moved into the building, resulting in further strengthening and fireproofing renovations.
[6]: 5 Terry L. Meyers, an English professor at William & Mary, re-identified the building as an 18th-century construction and the Bray School's probable site in 2002.
He encountered a book on pre-restoration Williamsburg by Ed Belvin that made reference to a home on the corner of Prince George St. and Boundary St. named Brown Hall that had belonged to the Digges family.
[note 6] At the ceremony, Meyers said that William & Mary could "with obvious caveats and qualifications" be described as "the first institution of higher learning in what is today America to concern itself with black education" because of its association with the Bray School.
[2] The next year, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation entered into a partnership with William & Mary to perform the relocation, restoration, and interpretation of the Bray School building.
[6]: 5 The building, described as the United States' "oldest schoolhouse for Black children", was moved a half-mile from the college campus into Colonial Williamsburg on February 10, 2023.
[5]: 2 The 2021 inventory identified an original appearance with eight periods of alterations, including three from the building's 1930 move to William & Mary until the departure of the ROTC program in 2021.
[27] Among the major alterations to occur over the course of the structure's history was the addition of multiple wings, the switch from a gable roof to a gambrel design, and late introduction of modern electrical systems.
