Kiah House

In partnership with the City of Savannah and the African Diaspora Museology Institute, the project presents an opportunity to restore a historic building with significant social and cultural history and reintroduce it as an active arts and community service program.

Our mission

Our mission is to restore the former Kiah House Museum building, establish a Kiah-inspired creative arts program that embraces the community and its future, and thus reinstate its status as a vital community asset.

History

The home of Virginia and Calvin Kiah became the first African-American-founded museum in Savannah, Georgia. The Kiahs installed the museum in their home in 1959 during the Jim Crow segregation era, when the City of Savannah denied African Americans entry into public cultural venues because of their race. The museum ceased operations in 2001 when Virginia Kiah died and remains vacant and in significant disrepair.

Scope of Work

Our project aims to restore the former Kiah House Museum building to reflect the “Kiah Period” of historic significance.

Although the building has sat vacant for more than 20 years, most features original to Kiah's 1959 improvements remain, and it still maintains high integrity in location, design, and materials associated with the former Museum. These 1959 changes were crucial in creating the museum space and marked the beginning of its significant period. To honor this “Kiah Period,” we will restore the grand two-story gallery space, retaining the large north-facing window, keeping the inset piano on the 2nd-floor landing, and installing a new decorative metal handrail for the stairway.

Exterior work will involve repairing the existing metal shingle roof as needed and rebuilding the main roof soffit with a missing three-inch wood tongue-and-groove beadboard. All wood siding and trim will be restored and painted. We will install new wood-paneled doors at the front and side entries and rebuild the missing side porch roof on the east facade. Preservation efforts will include replacing two non-historic aluminum windows on the south facade with new double-hung wood windows.

Additionally, we will develop a landscape plan for the courtyard, incorporating the ornate tile fountain saved from the demolished Bijou Theatre.

All work will adhere to the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation due to the historic status of the main house.

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