"After the Bell" the official podcast of Savannah - Chatham County Public School System

Producer Dee Daniels interviews curator Steve Smith at Savannah’s Massie Heritage Center about the site’s history, programs, and future. Smith traces Massie’s origins to Peter Massie’s 1841 bequest that funded a school built by architect John Norris and opened in 1856; it later served as a Union hospital, a Freedmen’s school, and then the first public school in Georgia’s first public school system formed by Savannah and Chatham County in 1866, operating until 1974.

After years of reuse, Friends of Massie helped reopen it in 1978 as a “museum school” using the “community is the classroom” model of place-based education. Smith describes exhibits on Savannah’s city plan, architecture, preservation, maritime history, Native Americans, and a 19th-century classroom, plus events like May Day and outreach programs such as History on Wheels, while noting building repair needs and growth in visiting school groups.

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FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Welcome to Massie

00:32 Origins After the Fire

02:46 From School to Heritage

05:30 Savannah First Public Schools

06:24 Where Massie Sits

08:49 Museum School Model

11:27 Touring the Exhibits

17:58 May Day and Programs

22:07 Future Goals and Repairs

24:34 How to Visit and Book

26:09 Closing Thanks