By Eric Curl

Nov. 11, 2020 – The long-neglected Kiah house in Savannah’s historic Cuyler-Brownville neighborhood is getting some attention from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, following efforts by the Friends of Kiah Museum group to raise awareness about the house Virginia Jackson Kiah and her husband, Calvin Kiah, transformed into a community museum in the late 1950s.  

Dating back to 1915, the house at 505 W. 36th St. is among 10 historic sites throughout the state included on the Georgia Trust’s 2021 list of ‘Places in Peril.’

“This is the Trust’s sixteenth annual Places in Peril list,” President and CEO Mark C. McDonald said in a press release announcing the list. “We hope the list will continue to bring preservation solutions to Georgia’s imperiled historic resources by highlighting ten representative sites.”

Virginia Kiah established the house museum to “reach the masses”, the late African-American artist and educator said in this video on YouTube. Notable visitors included Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks and artist Margaret Burroughs, according to the Georgia Trust.

Following Kiah’s death in 2001 at age 90, the house’s condition deteriorated after falling victim to a two-decade-long legal dispute in Chatham County Probate Court. The case remains unresolved.

A Savannah State University anthropology professor, Deborah Johnson-Simon, established the Friends of Kiah Museum group and has been leading the charge to raise awareness about the Kiah house. 

Johnson described the Georgia Trust’s list as a positive step.

“I pray this will be the step that will bring those to the table that will be the change this neighborhood has been waiting to see,” she said.

The Savannah College of Art and Design named a 19th-century Georgia Railway building at 227 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Kiah’s honor.  Kiah had served on SCAD’s board and also donated most of her art to the university, which held an exhibition of her work in 2009. However, one of Kiah’s paintings can be viewed at the Johnson Collection Gallery in Spartenburg, SC.

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