Burwell School Historic Site

The Burwell School Historic Site preserves the setting for one of the state’s earliest schools for girls, The Burwell Academy for Young Ladies. Today, tour the site's two-acre property to see the historic Burwell residence (ca. 1821, 1848), the original brick classroom building of Robert and Margaret A Burwell, the gardens and a rare brick "necessary house." The tour focuses on life at the Burwell School from 1837 - 1857, when it was the home of the large Burwell family, a varying number of free and enslaved servants, and the remarkable story of Elizabeth Keckly, a Burwell family slave who later purchased her freedom and became a prominent businesswoman and activist in Washington, DC, as well as the confidante and dressmaker to First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.