Revealing the Williamsburg Bray School, Part 1

Funded by the English religious organization The Associates of Dr. Bray, the Williamsburg Bray School provided a faith-based education to enslaved and free Black students. From 1760 to 1774, teacher Ann Wager taught hundreds of students between the ages of three and ten.

Built in 1760 as a tenement, or rental property, the building was designed as a typical Colonial-style house, not purpose built as a school.

The building remained remarkably unchanged until 1924, when Williamsburg resident Alice P. Stryker purchased the property and undertook a major renovation. This included changing the roofline, adding multiple additions, and installing modern utilities including electricity and plumbing.

In 1926, Mrs. Stryker sold the building to the Women’s Missionary Society of the Methodist Church. In 1930, the Society moved the building to the campus of William & Mary where it was again enlarged and used as a dormitory and later, offices.

In 2020, archival research conducted by faculty at William & Mary suggested that a building on campus might encompass the original 1760 Bray School. As a result, the University asked the Colonial Williamsburg preservation team to investigate the structure.

To accomplish this, the team cut small square openings into the plaster, carefully peeling back the layers one by one until the original framing was exposed. This process allowed them to read each layer of the structure’s history while searching for evidence of 18th-century materials.

Black rats love to live among humans inside walls and ceilings. Historians love these furry pilferers, as the items they collect can help reveal how buildings appeared in earlier time periods.

Many items were found at the Bray School, including 18th-century straight pins and buttons, ceramic shards, and even William & Mary football tickets from the 1930s!

Before beginning the process of restoring the Bray School to its 18th-century appearance, the preservation team documented its existing condition. This ensured that future researchers could study the building’s pre-restoration layout and configuration.

The U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards define restoration as “allowing for the depiction of a building at a particular time in its history by preserving materials, features, finishes, and spaces from its period of significance and removing those from other periods.”

This means removing features from other eras like modern plumbing, later additions, and non-historic materials. Colonial Williamsburg strives to present a period of significance around 1776, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

To return the Bray School to its 18th-century appearance, the later 20th-century additions and changes from its time as a dormitory and offices were removed.

Once the documentation was completed, the team removed modern material and stabilized the structure.

Continue to Part 2 to follow the Bray School as it moves to a new location and the story of its restoration continues.