Thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and $8,000 in private donations, the Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation has purchased a 0.39-acre parcel adjacent to the Woodville School property on Route 17 in Ordinary for outdoor exhibits, educational programs, and meeting space for the community of Woodville descendants.

“Rosenwald schools were important to the education of African Americans across the South, and this project is part of the larger untold story of African American education in Gloucester County and the nation,” according to the grant application.

The application also states that “[t]he complete historical interpretation of African American education at the Woodville School includes experiential learning through an outdoor component.… The landscaping component of Rosenwald schools was an important element of the original plans but is often overlooked even in the small number of schools that are preserved. Rosenwald’s use of the natural environ...