PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Providence Preservation Society is acquiring the historic Brick School House from the city with the help of private grant.

The group has received a $341,500 grant from The Champlin Foundations to acquire the property on Meeting Street, one of a few remaining 18th century buildings in Providence. It has leased the building since the 1960s.

The Brick School House, built in 1769, was one of the first public schools in the U.S. and the first in Rhode Island to educate African-American children. Members of Brown University’s governing board met there in the 1770s to determine where to locate the college.