Ridgley was a farming community established after the Civil War by former slaves from local tobacco plantations. Ridgley Methodist Episcopal Church was first built in the late 1870s on land deeded to trustees Rev. Lewis Ridgley, Joseph Beal, and Richard Cook in 1871. A cemetery was added in 1892. The church was replaced in 1921 after the original burned. School was held in the church and benevolent hall until a new school opened in 1927 under the Rosenwald program. It was restored and reopened as a museum in 2011.