The famous white one-storey building in Badagry is believed to be the oldest storey building in Nigeria. It might not be as old at the English’s Dover Castle. But it has stood over 170 years of Nigerian history to be recognized as a national monument.
Rev. Henry Townsend of the Church Missionary Society laid the foundation of the building in 1842, and it was completed 3 years later in 1845. The building was the cradle of western education in Nigeria. It was the site of the first school in Nigeria, the Nursery of infant Church. The school was founded by Rev. Golmer, and it was later renamed St, Thomas’ Anglican Nursery and Primary School.
The building was occupied by Bishop Ajayi Crowther, the first Anglican Bishop in Africa around the mid-1980s when he was translating the English Holy Bible to the Yoruba language.
The two copies of the Bible are presently preserved in a glass case in a room in the building. The English copy of the bible is presently 173 years old while the completed version is 170 years old.
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