A treasure representing an important era in Gloucester County’s educational past is finally getting a much-needed facelift—the initial phase of a project designed to preserve the long-empty historic structure and turn it again into a useful building for the community.

Work began several weeks ago on the white clapboard exterior of Woodville School on Route 17 across from Lighthouse Worship Center in Ordinary. Woodville was one of seven Rosenwald schools built in Gloucester County, and the only one still standing today.

The name refers to Sears, Roebuck & Company part-owner and president Julius Rosenwald, who provided matching funds to help build some 5,000+ schools for the education of African-American children across the South in the early 20th century.

A crew from CertaPro Painters of the Virginia Peninsula has been on the job at the school doing the painstaking and environmentally-sensitive work of removing the façade’s lead-based paint, as well as re...