The wealthy New Bernian Moses Griffin left a bequest to build a school, and his estates papers and other records document the costs and the workmen involved. House carpenter Hardy B. Lane was the principal “architect” and builder, and William [H.] Jones was the principal white bricklayer. Much of the work was accomplished by free and enslaved artisans of color including Richard Tucker and Isaac C. Rue. It was a substantial Greek Revival style brick building similar in detail to other local buildings of the late antebellum period. It burned in 1922. See Sandbeck, New Bern, and Bishir, Crafting Lives.