The Premier's race advisor Rolfe Commissiong added his support to those objecting to rezoning land which houses the Lane School as commercial property.

And he said if Bermuda wanted to continue to lead the way in the African Diaspora Trail it needed to preserve such landmarks.

Now a derelict building, the Lane School, on East Broadway, was the first school for black children on the Island after emancipation in 1834. It was one of seven schools the Anglican Church helped build in partnership with the Young Men's Friendly Societies on the Island.

The owners of the property have asked that it be rezoned for commercial use which would allow them to build up to a five-storey building a request to construct a building has not been made to the Development Applications Board.

The Bermuda Draft Tribunal is to meet next week to decide the building's fate.

Yesterday Mr. Commissiong said: "I also do not understand how we can continue to promote Bermuda as a keynote on the Diaspora Trail and provide little in the way of authentic sites which can illuminate our history for our visitors and for generations of Bermudians to follow. Sites which collectively we have made a decision to preserve as part of our common heritage.

"How we deal with this issue will demonstrate and definitively express what we as Bermudians truly value."

Mr. Commissiong added that he believed Bermuda has often put economic growth over historical preservation.

"I have been of the view that too often in the post-modern Bermudian context, we have become a people who know the price of everything but the value of nothing," he said.

"The long-term interest of the community is certainly better served by the enhancement and preservation of this key historical landmark, than by any subsequent development of the site consistent with current trends.

"And I am also of the view that in this context the broader needs of the community and the need to preserve this historical treasure, must trump the legitimate yet more narrow interest of the current owner(s) of the property, which would be to maximise the economic potential of the property under question."

Mr. Commissiong likened the plight of the Lane School to that of the black gravesite at Tucker's Point golf course, which he alleged has been neglected over the years. He said they were both examples of history that have been overlooked.