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Colonial Williamsburg to hold public dedication service for oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children in the U.S.

The dedication ceremony on Friday will mark 250 years since the Williamsburg Bray School closed.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — An historic school building is being prepared to be open to the public again. 

Friday, Colonial Williamsburg and members of the descendant community will hold a public dedication ceremony for the Williamsburg Bray School. It's the oldest known surviving structure in the U.S. where free and enslaved Black children received a formal education. 

The ceremony comes exactly 250 years after the school closed its doors in 1774. 

Years later, the building became part of William & Mary's campus, until scientists determined it was the old schoolhouse in 2020 by studying the wood on the structure. 

"That building says that we were here," said Janice Canaday, of Williamsburg. 

Inside those walls, as many as 400 students, ages 3 to 10, received a formal education between 1760 and 1774. Among the children were Canaday's ancestors, Elisha and Mary Jones. 

"It lets me know everything I've experienced and everything I am experiencing now is part of that developing story, that my story is much richer. It's much fuller than I ever expected it to be," she said. 

Right now, teams are restoring it back to its original form and hoping to tell the stories once housed inside. 

"It's to present the world the children saw, the environment that they saw, where they were learning and where they spent most of their days," said Matt Webster, Executive Director of Architectural Preservation for Colonial Williamsburg. 

Webster says a lot of the building materials remain from when the building was first built.  

"You'll be walking on the same floors that those children walked on in the 1760s," said Webster. 

Days ago members of the descendant community experienced that for themselves as they privately toured the schoolhouse. Canaday says the feeling of connection with her ancestors is inspiring her to make sure their stories are told. 

The dedication ceremony will take place at 2 o’clock Friday afternoon in Colonial Williamsburg. The building will remain closed until it fully opens to the public in the Spring of 2025. 

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