Massie Heritage Center

The Massie School, also referred to as the Massie Common School, opened in 1856 as the first public school in Savannah, Georgia, in the first chartered public school system of the American South. Located on Savannah's Taylor Square at 201–213 East Gordon Street, the original schoolhouse began construction in 1855 with invested funds from Peter Massie, an immigrant from Scotland. Massie intended his investment to be used for the creation of a free school for Savannah's poor children. The Massie School remained in use as a public elementary school until its closing in 1974; two notable exceptions include its utilization by Union troops as a hospital during the American Civil War and then briefly as a Freedmen's school. Today, the Massie Heritage Center occupies the original schoolhouse and serves as a museum. However, the building remains the longest continuously operating public schoolhouse in the state of Georgia.