In 1899 in Powhatan, Virginia, Saint Katharine Drexel opened St. Francis de Sales High School, a school for young ladies of African American descent. The brother school to SFDS, St. Emma Military Academy for African American young men, had been established by Colonel Edward Morrell and his wife Louise Drexel Morrell. Thousands were educated at these schools, before closing in 1972. Katharine Drexel commissioned architect C.L. Dodd to design SFDS school building. While SFDS was being built, architect Dodd had built his own residence near the schools. It is in this historic site that Belmead on the James, Inc., plans to establish a gathering place for eco-social justice, storytelling, ancestry research. It will preserve “...St. Katharine Drexel’s cultural, historical, spiritual, ecological and educational legacy.” To honor the Virginia legacy of the Drexels and Morrells, as well as the two historic schools in Powhatan, BOJI will rename the historic site, The Drexel-Morrell Center.