The historic Bray School building was where teachers taught freed and enslaved Black children. Its restoration was begun 250 years later by the William and Mary Bray School Laboratory.

The Colonial Williamsburg schoolhouse was first opened on September 29, 1760, and is preserved and honored more than two and a half centuries later.

Tonia Merideth is an oral historian and descendant of a Williamsburg Bray School student who says the silence surrounding the history of the school and the people associated with it is a challenge for historians trying to piece together the full story of lives. school touched.

“So myself and the genealogists are working hard to tell a fuller story of these children, going through all the documentation (including oral histories), we have one belonging to a descendant member of the community. His family and two families have families. We sent the students to Bray school.” Merideth told Scripps News.

The Bray School was open from 1760 to 1774, educating as many as 400 Black children ages 3 to 10 in an area that is now Williamsburg, Virginia.

Merideth says she didn’t know before coming to Williamsburg that she shared a family connection with the school and its students. Bray says he learned the story of his school 11 years ago and that alone fascinated him enough to go there and be a part of the project.

Surprisingly, he says, it was only after this commitment that he learned of his personal genetic connection to the school.

“The first day I saw that school and touched it, it was like those kids were asking me to tell their story,” he said.

As the school was restored and moved to a safe location, descendants of the community joined laboratory workers who were part of the project to celebrate the restoration.

Matt Webster is working on the Bray school project and said he believes the biggest challenge in their work is preserving these stories.

“This isn’t just a building,” Webster said. “A place where life happens.”

The restored school building is scheduled to open to the public this spring.