COLUMBIA -- Howard County is getting a pretty sizeable grant to preserve a piece of its history.

In Blandair Regional Park, there's a building that used to be the home of enslaved African Americans that was first built in the 1800s. The county wants to fix it up and learn more about it.

It's still hard to pinpoint exactly when the slave quarters were built, but Tiffany Fisk, Howard County's Historic and Cultural Resources Section Manager, said it's estimated to have been around since the 1840s and 1850s.

It's a rare one at that, being a duplex.

"I speak for anybody who's been in here the last couple of years as we've started to pursue this," Fisk said. "You know you're someplace that's important. You can feel it."

Fisk is part of the team trying to bring the building to life. It's on a part of land in the park that's still under development.

The county recently got an African American Heritage Preservation Program Award, totaling up to $250,000. All of the funds will be used to restore the building.

Another expert that's part of the effort is Howard County architectural historian Ken Short, who is making sure every detail in the restoration is right.

"As historians, we're striving to tell the true story, and from my perspective, the little details added together sort of make that true story," Short said.

More to learn

Fisk said there's still so much more to learn about the property. She said they now know there were around 10 to 20 enslaved African Americans who could've been living at these quarters at any given time.

While Fisk said they're now tracking a family that could've lived here, there isn't really anything known about these people.

She said restoring the building is a big step in finding out more about them: about Howard County's history.

"The history of slavery African American history [in Howard County]...it's just not told," Fisk said. "There are people who are trying to unearth more and more. We just need to keep going. We need to keep the momentum going."