Leonardtown, Md. — St. Mary’s County Government’s Museum Division of Recreation and Parks, partnering with the Unified Committee for Afro-American Contributions, schedules the last free open houses of 2025 at the Drayden African American Schoolhouse on September 20, October 4 and October 18, each from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The site at 18287 Cherryfield Road in Drayden closes for the season after these dates and reopens in April 2026.
Volunteers from the Unified Committee for Afro-American Contributions staff the events, sharing accounts of the one-room structure’s role in segregated education. Admission remains free for all ages, with on-site guides answering questions about daily lessons, community ties and preservation efforts. Groups, including schools and bus tours, can book separate visits through the Piney Point Lighthouse Museum at 301-994-1471. Individual inquiries for off-hours access follow the same contact.
The Drayden African American Schoolhouse, built around 1890 and operated until 1944, stands as one of the best-preserved examples nationwide of facilities for Black students during segregation in St. Mary’s County. Its frame construction on tree-trunk foundations reflects Southern Maryland building practices from the European colonial era, with original green interior paint and sliding exterior planks intact. After closure, the building served as a residence before vacancy and deterioration, prompting its donation to the county in 2000. Restoration crews, guided by surviving former students, repaired the roof, windows and floorboards while replicating desks and other furnishings, leading to its 2018 reopening.
These open houses cap a year of monthly public access from April through October, a format that draws families from Drayden’s rural hamlets and nearby Leonardtown. The site illustrates how Black children in the Valley Lee District navigated one-room classrooms heated by wood stoves, drawing water from shared pails and sharing dippers amid limited supplies like broken pencils. Such conditions persisted until county schools desegregated in 1967, following federal mandates from Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. No public high school existed for Black students until 1934, restricting most to seventh grade or less.
Karen Stone, manager of the St. Mary’s County Museum Division, highlighted the site’s underrecognized value. “The Drayden African American Schoolhouse is important piece of our county’s history, one that not many in our community know about, so we’re happy we can make it available for visitors,” Stone said. She also credited volunteers, mostly from the Unified Committee for Afro-American Contributions, for sustaining operations.
The Unified Committee for Afro-American Contributions, founded in 1995 by Elmer Jefferson Brown Sr. of Drayden, operates as an all-volunteer nonprofit to document Black contributions in St. Mary’s County while advocating for health, education and community improvements. Members conduct oral histories, mount exhibits and host the annual Juneteenth celebration at Elmer Brown Freedom Park in Lexington Park. Their efforts include the 2006 book “In Relentless Pursuit of an Education: African American Stories from a Century of Segregation, 1865-1967,” which compiles resident accounts, and a documentary on Great Mills High School’s desegregation from 1958 to 1972. The group built the St. Mary’s County African American Monument, dedicated in 2000 with an eternal flame sculpture, and the U.S. Colored Troops Memorial, honoring Civil War soldiers from the area, including two Medal of Honor recipients from the 38th Infantry Regiment.
St. Mary’s County’s African American history traces to the 17th century, when enslaved people arrived with early English settlers at St. Clement’s Island in 1634. Post-Civil War, the Freedmen’s Bureau aided establishment of schools like Drayden’s under the 1869 state law requiring separate facilities for Black children. By 1900, the county operated 22 such one-room schools for about 1,200 students, funded unevenly through local taxes and Rosenwald Fund grants from 1917 onward, which supported over 5,000 Southern schools nationwide. Drayden, one of three in its district, served grades one through seven, with teachers like Ralph Butler instructing multigrade classes in 1949 at nearby Banneker Elementary.
The Museum Division, formed by county commissioners to preserve Potomac River-area artifacts, oversees Drayden alongside sites like St. Clement’s Island Museum and the Old Jail Museum in Leonardtown. Its portable exhibit “Remember the Past Look to the Future: African American Education in St. Mary’s County 1865-1967” travels to schools, detailing segregation’s end. Recent open houses, such as those for Juneteenth in June 2024, drew crowds exploring interpretive markers on the grounds.
Drayden, an unincorporated community along the St. Mary’s River, embodies Southern Maryland’s blend of farmland and waterfront, with its schoolhouse drawing visitors alongside the nearby West St. Mary’s Manor, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1970. The site’s monthly schedule aligns with warmer weather, avoiding winter closures due to its uninsulated design. Past events, including Black History Month specials in February 2021, featured extended hours and storytelling sessions.
For updates, check the Drayden African American Schoolhouse Facebook page or call 301-994-1471. These final 2025 sessions offer a final opportunity to engage with a structure that bridges St. Mary’s County’s segregated past and its ongoing commitment to inclusive history.
