The Bray-Digges House

Early American Architecture students at the Bray-Digges House in Prof. Lounsbury's class learned the basic fundamentals of how to "read" a building to understand the social and cultural intentions of those who commissioned or built it, how it may have been altered over the years to fit new patterns of use, and the historical implications of those changes.

On 25 February 2021, William & Mary and Colonial Williamsburg announced the identification of the structure used for the Bray School for enslaved and free Black children between 1760 and 1765. Known as the Bray-Digges House, the structure stood at 524 Prince George Street until 10 February when it was relocated to its permanent home at the intersection of Francis and Nassau streets.

During the Spring 2021 semester, students in Dr. Carl Lounsbury’s Early American Architecture Course worked to document, draw, and record architectural details of the Bray-Digges House. The completed report—“Dudley Digges House aka Bray School and Brown Hall Annex: Room-by-Room Inventory of the Building Fabric”—includes the work of Caitlin Blomo, Marissa Condie, Adam Pleasants, Claudia Santa Anna, Caitlin Snook, Mae Tilley, and Maria Torregrosa. You can find the write-up here: