Cuyler-Brownville Historic District

Cuyler-Brownville is a historically African-American neighborhood in southwest Savannah, laid out on a grid and built up between the late 1860s and the late 1930s. It grew from two post-Civil War communities, Dilliontown and Brownville, where former slaves settled. In the north, Peter Wiltberger Meldrim built the wood-framed Meldrim Row cottages in the 1880s to house African-American laborers, and later one- and two-story rowhouses followed. South of Kline Street, single houses in Colonial Revival, Craftsman, Neoclassical Revival and Folk Victorian styles reflect both working- and middle-class residents. The district also keeps corner stores, a 1937 gas station, churches, brick-paved streets, oak-lined blocks and Wells Park. Its community landmarks include the 1914 Cuyler Street School, the School of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Florance Street School and the 1931 Charity Hospital, which trained Black nurses and served Black patients. Together these buildings document African-American education, health care, commerce and neighborhood planning in Georgia.