“Protecting our Streets:
An Update on Historic Pavements in Savannah and Beyond”

    DATE: Wednesday, November 7, 2 018, 6:30 - 8 PM

WHAT: Friends of Massie welcomes Dr. Robin Williams back to Massie Heritage Center for their Fall 2018 Friends of Massie History and Architecture Lecture Series. Dr. Williams will build on his sold-out presentation in January 2017 by exploring the significance of Savannah’s street and sidewalk pavement.

From the mid-19th century through the 1920s, a revolution in street and sidewalk pavement helped modernize American cities, including Savannah. As asphalt took over, efforts to preserve and protect historic pavements began to take place around the country as early as 1930. Although Savannah retains a wide variety of pavement types, the city is not at the forefront of protecting this heritage underfoot. Join us as we ask what can Savannah learn from other cities, what needs to be done, and how can we help?

WHO: Robin B. Williams, Ph.D. teaches at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he is the founder and current chair of the Department of Architectural History. Williams has made Savannah the focus of his research for over two decades. From 1997 until 2006, he directed the online Virtual Historic Savannah Project. He is the lead author of the recently published architectural guidebook, Buildings of Savannah, which serves as the inaugural city guide in the Society of Architectural Historians’ Buildings of the United States series. His current research analyses the evolution of street and sidewalk pavement in cities across North America, showcased on his website, www.historicpavement.com

WHERE: Massie Heritage Center
             207 East Gordon Street (corner of Abercorn)
             Savannah, GA 31401

COST: FREE and open to the public

RSVP: General Admission, Doors open at 6:30 p.m., 
          Conversation begins at 7:00 p.m.

*Seating is limited and first come-first served

**Friends of Massie Members are invited to reserve their seats by calling  912.395.5070

Download flyer to save and print

MEET OUR DOCENT VOLUNTEERS

Click here if you would like to volunteer!

  Massie Heritage Center Wins
Coastal Museums Association Annual Awards for Excellence

​The Coastal Museums Association (CMA) held its fifth annual CMA Awards of Excellence on Wednesday, June 6, 2018, to recognize the exceptional educational and cultural programming delivered by local museums and cultural institutions during the 2017 calendar year.

The Excellence in Exhibition​Award was given to Massie Heritage Center​for the Enslavement to Emancipation: the Struggle for Education, which​ ​tells the story of African American education in Savannah from the early 19th century until the 1960s.  It begins with the “Pioneers of Education”, people like Jane and Catherine Duvaeux, James Simms, James Porter, Mother Matilda Beasley, and Susie King Taylor, who operated clandestine schools here in Savannah when it was illegal to teach a person(s) of color to read or write. The exhibit continues to explore the Freedmen’s schools that were operated here immediately after the Civil War, Massie was one of them for a short period in summer and fall 1865.  These schools were funded by the Freedmen’s Bureau and usually operated by the AMA.  Eventually, most of these schools were incorporated into the Chatham County Public School system in 1872, six years after our local public school system first began in 1866.  .  Finally, the exhibit ends with the story of how a group of brave young men and women integrated two Chatham County schools in 1963.

 Coastal Museums Association
Local History Achievement Award 

Massie Awarded
the GHS Roger K. Warlick

Alumni  Gathering 

Massie Heritage Center:
Honoring Our Guides
One of our program guides, Charlotte Landon, was the first city guide to be certified under the new certification system.