By Eric Curl
June 27, 2024 – Plans for the Kiah house are expanding beyond the boundaries of the historic Cuyler Brownville home that the late artist and educator Virginia Jackson Kiah once operated as a community museum.
On Wednesday, the Historic Preservation Commission approved the Galvan Foundation’s request to rehabilitate an adjacent commercial building at 2001 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard the nonprofit developer recently acquired to serve as part of the proposed campus for the planned Kiah Museum.
Read past Galvan Foundation coverage
The proposed “studio” building will allow Kiah’s home at 505 East 36th St. to retain space and truly function as a house museum dedicated to Kiah’s life and work, according to the project’s architect, Josh Ward. An art gallery and instructional spaces will be incorporated into the studio, along with offices, public restrooms, and back of house service areas, Ward said.
A portion of the rear side of the building, currently comprised of an assortment of conduit and systems, will also be replaced with glass to increase the connectivity and provide a view of the courtyard and museum.
Galvan purchased the building on MLK for $709,000 in December through its local subsidiary, Savannah Local Initiatives, according to property records.
In addition, the HPC approved Galvan’s request to construct a staircase, wheelchair ramp, and elevator on the back side of the Kiah house as part of the effort to restore the property that Kiah and her husband, Calvin Kiah, a former Dean of Education at Savannah State College, transformed into a community museum in the late 1950s.
With the goal of fulfilling Kiah’s intentions of a “museum for the masses,” accessibility will be brought to the forefront, Ward said.
The HPC’s approval comes after the board’s approval last November of the rehabilitation of the house that had significantly deteriorated following Kiah’s death in 2001 and her estate’s more than two-decade case in Chatham County Probate Court. The project also includes the demolition of the home’s carriage house, which was found to be structurally unsound due partially to termite infestation. Once demolished a similar structure is to be constructed in its place.
The elevator addition and inclusion of the commercial building comes after the Savannah City Council approved an agreement with Galvan, along with the appropriation of up to $500,000, for the nonprofit developer to acquire and renovate the Kiah house last fall. The partnership was selected among competing proposals by the previous owner, the Historic Savannah Foundation, which had hoped to find a preservation minded buyer for the property it acquired in 2022, after Kiah’s heirs signed off on the sale.
HSF did have some concerns about some design details on the elevator addition detracting from the design of the house itself, Ellie Isaacs, HSF’s director of Preservation & Historic Properties, said during Wednesday’s meeting. However, the board and staff voiced support for the structure, and the design was unanimously approved.
“Every iteration of this project, it gets more exciting just to see this project come together,” said board member Pamela Miller, prior to the vote.
Ward agreed to potentially retain the entrances on the MLK side of the commercial building instead of eliminating them, after concerns were raised about their proposed removal and “deactivation” of the building on that side. Galvan is to conduct further research on the 60-year-old building in an attempt to determine the facade’s historic appearance and present the findings and potential redesign to staff, as a condition of the building renovation’s approval.
Check out the Cuyler-Brownville housing initiative map and database
The HPC also approved Galvan’s request to construct a single-family home on a vacant lot at 2114 Bulloch St. as part of the Cuyler Brownville housing partnership with the city. The planned home is similar to three single-family houses Galvan recently built on a former vacant stretch of land along Lavinia Street as part of the initiative, as recently reported.
“I want to thank you for taking on the issue of affordable housing in Savannah,” HPC member Patricia Richardson told Galvan’s representative, Juan Uzcategui, prior to the vote.
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