Old Port Royal School House

506 MAIN STREET, PORT ROYAL

The Old Port Royal School was one of at least 22 one-room schools built for African-American students in Caroline County in the early 20th century. In June 1923, a two acre plot of land was sold to the trustees of the Port Royal Colored School League by the C. Marshall Gravatt family. The League purchased the land to build a school for the town's African-American children. Prior to the construction of the school, children had been taught on the second floor of the old St. Luke Hall. The Hall burned in 1921, and students were left without a school until the new building was constructed in 1924. The League trustees were residents of Port Royal and members of Shiloh Baptist Church. Trustees and signers of the deed were James Brooks, Thomas Rich, Howel Jeter, J.H. Pratt, W. L. Pruce and L. W. Hill. The school was built in the style of Julius Rosenwald schools.

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Mrs. Hortense Brown Rich was the school’s sole teacher, instructing grades one through seven. At its peak, the school served 70 students. Later, the school became part of the Caroline County Public School System and was used for African-American children until it was closed in 1959, when the children were then bused to a modern school in Bowling Green.

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In 1993, Robert and Cleopatra Coleman—supported by Union Bank, the Ruritans of Port Royal, and former students—restored the Old Port Royal Schoolhouse and reopened it to the public as a living history museum. For over 20 years, Mrs. Coleman has guided young students through a typical day of early twentieth-century education in a one-room schoolhouse setting. The museum is open to visitors every Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM, and by appointment.