In Savannah’s Historic District, the Beach Institute began in 1867 as one of the city’s first schools for African Americans after the Civil War, built by the Freedmen’s Bureau with support from the American Missionary Association and named for donor Alfred E. Beach. It became a major center of Black education through changing control, interruptions, and later use by the Savannah Boys Club before finally closing as a school in 1970. Saved in 1988 and reopened in 1990, it now serves as a museum, gallery, and educational center preserving African American history and culture, including the extensive Ulysses Davis wood sculpture collection.

Savannah, Georgia · USA