The Georgia Historical Society will hold a dedication for a new historical marker: The Montmollin Building and Bryan School. The dedication will take place on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, at 2:00 p.m., near 23 Barnard Street in Savannah, Georgia. The event is open to the public.

The marker reads:

The Montmollin Building and Bryan School

Banker and slave trader John S. Montmollin commissioned the adjacent building (c.1856) for his business. After Montmollin’s death, Alexander Bryan continued using the building to hold and sell enslaved people. When US General William T. Sherman captured Savannah in December 1864, the US government, implementing emancipation, confiscated the building and provided it to Savannah’s African-American community, which formed the Savannah Educational Association (SEA) to fund and establish schools. This building became the site of Bryan School. On January 10, 1865, at the school’s opening, hundreds of Black children marched here from First African Baptist Church. SEA schoolchildren publicly showcased their knowledge of grammar, history, geography, arithmetic, and other subjects in July 1865. The American Missionary Association, a northern benevolence organization, absorbed SEA and founded the Beach Institute in 1867, consolidating several schools, including Bryan School.

Erected by the Georgia Historical Society and the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah