Massie Heritage Center, Historic education museum in Gordon Street, Savannah, United States.
The Massie Heritage Center occupies the 1856 central schoolhouse at 201–213 East Gordon Street on Taylor Square, built of Savannah gray brick in the Greek Revival style by architect John S. Norris. A gable roof and wooden cupola top the symmetrical facade, and the east annex of 1872 by John Hogg and the 1886 west wing repeat Norris's design. Inside, a re-created 19th-century classroom and exhibits cover public education, coastal Georgia culture and civil rights.
The building started in 1856 as Savannah's first free public school and received two additional wings over the following decades. These expansions show how much the city was growing and how important education had become.
The center displays how teaching looked in Savannah long ago and what materials teachers actually used in their classrooms. You can see how school classes were organized and what books and objects were part of daily learning.
The museum is easy to reach on foot in downtown Savannah and has several rooms you can explore at a relaxed pace. It helps to spend time in each classroom display to fully take in the details and context.
The building's basement coal furnace heated the whole schoolhouse, which is why Union troops used it as a hospital in December 1864. With coal cut off by the naval blockade of the Savannah River, the occupying soldiers burned school furniture for heat and ruined the furnace.
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