The Burwell School is a a historic house museum on two acres in the Historic District of Hillsborough, NC, which was founded in 1754 and laid out in acre lots. The site includes the two-story frame building begun in 1821 and expanded in 1848, which served until that time as the Presbyterian manse as well as a girls' school. The site is named for the Burwell family which operated the school: Robert Armistead Burwell and wife Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell, both from and distinguished Virginia families, and their twelve children. The site includes a restored brick classroom building and a restored brick "necessary" building, as well as a small Southern garden and an example of the rare Musk Rose which was discovered on the property and was associated with the Robertson and Burwell families.

To preserve the Burwell School Historic Site and brings its story to the public.

The Burwell School Historic Site is a house museum displaying the home of the Rev. and Mrs. Robert Burwell, who from 1837 - 1857 operated a landmark female day and boarding academy attended by over 200 girls from the local area as well as across the state and beyond. From 1835 - 1841 this was also the home and workplace of Elizabeth Hobbs, later Elizabeth Keckly (1818 -1907), a young slave woman who later succeeded in purchasing her freedom and establishing a successful business as a modiste (designer/dressmaker) in Washington, DC, where she was the personal modiste and confidante to Mary Lincoln, an experience she documented in her autobiography.

The house was also a refuge in the Civil War for the wealthy and numerous family of Josiah Collins III of Washington County, NC.