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Drayden is an 
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
in St. Mary's County St. Mary's County may refer to:
* St. Mary's County, Maryland
*St. Mary's County, Utah Territory
There are 29 counties in the U.S. state of Utah. There were originally seven counties established under the provisional State of Deseret in 1849: ...
, Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, United States. West St. Mary's Manor
West St. Mary's Manor is a historic house on West St. Mary's Manor Road in rural St. Mary's County, Maryland. Built in the 1780s according to dendrochronology and with a four-room center-hall plan, and is located on the first recorded English l ...
was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1970. Porto Bello was listed in 1972.
The Drayden Schoolhouse was a small, one-room African American children's school featuring grades 1–7. It was open and operational from 1890 to 1944. The land was donated by Mary Ellen and Daniel A. Gross in 1889. The schoolhouse was a one-room design based on a Victorian design like other one-room schools already operational in St. Mary's County. The original green paint is still inside the structure. Exterior paint was added in 2000 to preserve the original sliding planks.
The Drayden schoolhouse was one of three for African American children in the Valley Lee District. One teacher taught grades 1-7 and could have had as many as forty students in the single room. At this time there were no public high schools open to African American students. They did not have a public high school for African American children until 1934. Until that time, most African American children did not have the ability to attend school beyond the seventh grade. Schools were not de-segregated in St. Mary's County, Maryland until 1967.
References
Unincorporated communities in St. Mary's County, Maryland Unincorporated communities in Maryland {{StMarysCountyMD-geo-stub