Built around 1835, this was at least the second school built by the African Nova Scotian community of Birchtown. First serving African Nova Scotian children, it later accepted children of European descent, probably becoming the first integrated school in the province. The first school in the community was built in 1785 and it is believed that this may be the site of that school.
This little schoolhouse continued to serve the people of this area until the Birchtown Consolidated School was built around 1960. In 1997 the
Black Loyalist Heritage Society acquired the building and later opened the Black Loyalist Heritage Museum within it, a museum of Black Loyalist history in the Birchtown area. The museum continues to be open daily June through September and open by appointment in the off season – admission is charged. Appointments may be made by calling 902-875-1310 or emailing arlene(at)blackloyalist.com.
300 metres east on Birchtown Road is the
Black Loyalist Historical Site which is open year round.
Birchtown Schoolhouse
The first school for Black children in Birchtown was established in 1785, with Stephen Blucke as the instructor. The Associates of the late Doctor Thomas Bray created this school as well as schools in Digby and Halifax. The schoolhouse was provided by the Blacks in Birchtown and in 1787 Stephen Blucke had 36 pupils in his Birchtown school.
It appears as if Stephen Blucke closed his school in 1796. Two years later, in 1798, the second school at Birchtown was established for Black children under the direction of the warden of Christ Church. In 1799, the same Christian Society opened a school for White children.
This schoolhouse was built in the 1830s on land that belonged to Roswell Brown, a White schoolmaster who came to Nova Scotia from Albany, New York, with the Church of England in the early 1800s. After stints in Liverpool and Port Mouton, Brown came to Birchtown in 1825.
From The Historical Marker at the School<
Birchtown School
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
The Birchtown School is a small, wood building located on a small loop road near the Birchtown waterfront. Built between 1830 and 1860, it now houses a museum dedicated to the history of Black Loyalists in the Birchtown, NS area. The provincial designation applies to the building and land.
HERITAGE VALUE
The Birchtown School is valued for its association with the story of education in the eighteenth century African-Nova Scotian community of Birchtown. It is also valued as a local landmark and museum.
A British tactic to weaken American resources during the American Revolution was to offer freedom and land to any Black slave who managed to escape their American slave owners and fight for the British. Following the end of hostilities approximately 50,000 ‘loyal’ Blacks needed to be resettled. Over three thousand came to Nova Scotia; approximately fifteen hundred settled at Birchtown in 1783. At this time Birchtown was the largest community of Free Blacks outside of Africa. In 1791 the British government formed the Sierra Leone Company and offered Freed Blacks more land that they were given in the British colonies and the promise of self-government in the West African country of Sierra Leone. Nearly half of the Black Loyalists accepted this offered and removed to Sierra Leone. Some Black Loyalists remained in Birchtown, which eventually became a racially mixed community. Formal education began in Birchtown in 1785 by an English philanthropic society.
It is unknown exactly when the Birchtown School was constructed. Its architecture is consistent with mid-nineteenth century architecture and is believed to have been built between 1830 and 1860. During that period a teacher named Roswell Brown was known to have taught Black children in the area at a Church of England school and Brown owned the land on which the school was built.
The building is a Greek Revival, one-and-one-half storey wood frame building with a front gable roof and a one storey wing projecting from the front elevation. It is one of two public buildings remaining from nineteenth century Birchtown and is now open as a museum operated by the Black Loyalist Heritage Society.
CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS
- all elements related to its simple Greek Revival style including simple label mouldings around widows and doors, and simple corner boards and eave trim;
- wood cladding;
- gable end facing the road;
- wing on front elevation containing vestibules and two exterior doors;
- large sash window in gable;
- interior wainscoting to window sill.
From Historic Places Canada