Historic Savannah schoolhouse welcomes alumni back inside doors for special reunion

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Former students and teachers of Massie Elementary School gathered at the Massie Heritage Center for a reunion and shared their stories with the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System.

The school operated for 118 years. It now operates as a museum along Abercorn and East Gordon Streets.

First public school in Savannah

Massie Elementary School opened as the first public school in Savannah in 1856.

“It was the school for downtown for many many people so a lot of senior citizens now went here because they could walk,” said Gale Stevens, president of Friends of Massie.

Stevens said her team has been trying to find people who went to the school.

Reunions bring together students and teachers

Margaret Helmly, a former Massie Elementary student, described the school as a neighborhood school.

“This was what I call a neighborhood school,” Helmly said.

Alice Gerber, a former Massie Elementary teacher, met her former student Linda Carroll. It was one of many reunions the Massie student search has produced.

“It’s a miracle that I’ve lived this long, and it’s so wonderful to see people I worked back then,” Gerber said.

Larry Smith, a former Massie Elementary student, has also been part of teaching the school’s history.

“My sixth grade teacher I mentioned came to one of these reunions when I was working here — she was 98 years old, looked exactly like I remembered her from 1964,” Smith said.

Smith said 150 people applied for the job the year he applied.

“I think the year I applied 150 people applied for the job and [it was] really conceivably the best teaching position in public education,” Smith said.

Stories from the classroom

Stevens said the reunions bring out stories that attendees look back on and laugh about.

“They start off, they’re shy, they don’t want to say that they got chastised in second grade for chewing gum and the teacher was really angry and what she did was she made the person eat the entire pack of gum until her jaws ached and she said, ‘You know, I’ve never ate gum in class again,’” Stevens said.

Stevens said the reunion is not the last event planned.

People who went to Massie Elementary, or know someone who did, can find ways to contact Friends of Massie on the station’s website.