By Eric Curl
Oct. 15, 2023 – The New York based nonprofit developer, Galvan Foundation, continues to invest in Savannah’s historic Cuyler Brownville neighborhood, following a partnership with the city.
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Galvan’s local subsidiary, Savannah Local Initiatives, recently purchased the former home of the late civil rights icon, W.W. Law at 710 W. Victory St.
Galvan’s Vice President, Dan Kent, did not respond to a request for comment about what the organization’s plans are for the property.
Law died in the house in 2002 and the structure deteriorated in the years after, earning a place on the Georgia Trust’s Places in Peril list at one point, before the Historic Savannah Foundation and W.W. Law Foundation stepped in to save the property from collapse in 2011. The next owner then renovated the structure after purchasing the property in 2014.
In August last year, a formerly missing plaque recognizing Law’s home was installed on the home during a media event after Savannah Agenda reported on the missing marker, as previously reported.
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Galvan’s acquisition of Law’s home comes after the Savannah City Council in January approved the transfer of 19 vacant city properties to Galvan as part of a plan to acquire the properties and build mixed-income housing in Cuyler-Brownville. In addition to the anticipated $5 million investment developing the former city lots, Galvan also contributed $1 million to the city’s Savannah Affordable Housing Fund for housing improvements, new housing and down-payment assistance.
More recently, the Savannah City Council approved an agreement with Galvan, along with the appropriation of up to $500,000, for the acquisition and renovation of the Kiah House.
The house at 505 W. 36th St. in historic Cuyler Brownville was transformed into a community museum in the late 1950s by the late artist and educator Virginia Jackson Kiah and her husband, Calvin Kiah, a former Dean of Education at Savannah State College.
The city’s Cultural Resources Department and Municipal Archives Department will collaborate to provide inspired programs and exhibits at the restored museum, according to city officials.. The total project cost is estimated at $1.2 million, with the city contributing $500,000 towards that cost and securing an interest in the property, the agenda states.
In September, the nonprofit organization purchased a 3-story residential property located downtown at 106 W. Harris St. for $3.2 million on Sept. 1. Kent did not respond to an inquiry regarding how the property would be used.
About W.W. Law
From 1950-1976 Law served as President of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP. During the 1960s, he led weekly mass meetings at Bolton Street Baptist Church and St. Philip A.M.E. Church during which he urged “passive resistance to segregation” and nonviolent protests. He was involved in efforts to desegregate Grayson Municipal Stadium, department store lunch counters on Broughton Street, and the beaches at Tybee Island. He led an eighteen-month boycott of Broughton Street merchants. Law is largely credited for helping to keep Savannah’s Civil Rights movement more peaceful than those in other southern cities. In 1961, he was fired from his postal job because of his Civil Rights activities, but reinstated after national NAACP leaders and President John F. Kennedy came to his defense.
Source: City of Savannah’s W.W. Law Collection
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