Beach Institute African American Cultural Center

The Beach Institute was established in 1867 as the first school built specifically for newly emancipated African Americans in Savannah following the Civil War. It was born of the Reconstruction Era effort to provide education for formerly enslaved people. In 1865, a meeting at the First African Baptist Church in Savannah brought community leaders together to consider how freed people should educate their children. The result was the formation of the Savannah Education System (SEA), and there was support from the American Missionary Association (AMA) and the Freedman's Bureau. The new school was largely funded by Scientific American magazine founder Alfred Ely Beach.

The land was cleared and the structure was built by free and formerly enslaved African Americans. The original building design featured eight classrooms. It was a two-story frame building on a raised basement, with a prominent pedimented gable front facing East Harris Street.

After years of operation as a school, the building was taken over by the Chatham County Board of Education. Then in 1988, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) bought the building from the Board, when the structure was placed up for auction. Inspired by her friend Civil Rights leader W.W. Law, President Paula Wallace of SCAD donated the building to the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation. SCAD also funded the labor costs and materials for the building's exterior renovations. Today the Beach Institute continues to use its gallery, lecture hall, and cultural center to research, preserve, and teach African American history.