134–142 Houston Street, in the

Historic District A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Historic Building Map: Savannah Historic District
– Historic Preservation Department of the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission (November 17, 2011), p. 31 of

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

, Georgia, is a building completed around 1926. Constructed of brick, the building stands at the corner of Houston and East York Streets in the southeastern corner of

Greene Square Greene Square is one of the 22 squares of Savannah, Georgia, United States. It is the easternmost square in the second row of the city's five rows of squares. The square is located on Houston Street and East President Street, and is south of Wa ...

. It is currently occupied by a meditation clinic. The original part of today's building is square in form. The main door faces west onto Houston Street. A triple-

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

is installed on either side of the door, which has a

molded Molding (American English) or moulding (British and Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the process of manufacturing by shaping liquid or pliable raw material using a rigid frame called a mold or matrix. This itself may have ...

arch above it, surrounding a semi-circular soda–lime glass window with ten panes. Also either side of the door, about halfway up, are two small lanterns. Four steps on either side rise to meet, creating the stoop. An iron railing begins from the second steps. The East York Street (northern) side of the building has three triple-sash windows. The East York Lane (southern) façade has a door, with a single sash window immediately either side of it and a triple sash on the eastern extremity, giving an asymmetrical appearance. The door, reached by four brick steps, has the same semi-circular window design, and two lanterns, as the main door. Another door, facing south but part of a wing on the building's eastern façade, is accessed by a set of concrete steps. The yard is surrounded on the Houston Street and East York Lane sides by a brick wall with light gaps. There is a gate in the wall on the Houston Street side. The eastern (rear) side has a single-storey extension, likely part of the remodeling of 1965. The roof, in the

hip In vertebrate anatomy, hip (or "coxa"Latin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) in medical terminology) refers to either an anatomical region or a joint. The hip region is ...

-style with a flat top, is made of slate, with

lead flashing Flashing refers to thin pieces of impervious material installed to prevent the passage of water into a structure from a joint or as part of a weather resistant barrier system. In modern buildings, flashing is intended to decrease water penetration ...

on its ridges, valleys, hips and drip edges.

Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten

The building became the home of the Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten, founded by George Johnson Baldwin (1856–1927) and his sisters, Kate (1861–1932) and Nellie (1869–1954),''History of the Kindergarten Movement'', Association for Childhood Education (U.S.) Committee of nineteen (1935), p. 20 as a memorial to their mother, Kate A. Baldwin (1830–1898)."Collection Number: 02834. Collection Title: Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten Records, 1899-1938"
- The Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library,

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

The business was incorporated in 1899 as a "benevolent and charitable institution for the free training, instruction, and education of young children under the

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

system of education, so as to inculcate in them habits of industry and morality and fit them for entrance into institutions of higher education.""Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten (Savannah, Ga.) photograph album"
- Georgia Historical Society The project was continued by George Baldwin's children, George Hull Baldwin (1883–1938) and Dorothea Irwin (1889–1977), under the direction of Martha G. Waring (1873–1943). Under the supervision of Massachusetts native

Hortense M. Orcutt Hortense May Orcutt (October 2, 1874 – January 21, 1936) was an American educator and businessperson. She was the superintendent of the Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten for twenty-five years. During her time in the role, the business grew into a ...

, from 1907 for the subsequent twenty-five years, it grew into a popular system of

s and a training school (known as the Normal Department) for kindergarten teachers, with as many as five kindergartens in operation at one time. The network educated approximately four thousand children between 1899 and 1943. After the death of Hortense Orcutt in 1936, the training school was discontinued, but the Baldwins continued the East Side Kindergarten, and nine other kindergartens continued under the auspices of the public schools, a church and other organizations. The Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten name was dissolved in 2001. The school subsequently became known as the Savannah Nursery School and the

Montessori The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...

Pre-School. Kate Baldwin, the wife of Daniel H. Baldwin, Sr. (1825–1887),Daniel H. Baldwin
at FindAGrave.com died on November 11, 1898, aged 68. She is buried in Savannah's

Bonaventure Cemetery Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. The cemetery became famous when it was featured in the 1994 novel ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' by John Berendt, ...

.Kate A. Baldwin
at FindAGrave.com

Architectural detail

File:314_Houston_Street_2.jpeg, The East York Street (northern) side of the building File:134_Houston_Street.png, A close-up of the plaque above the main door

References

{{reflist, 45em

External links

"Why Should the Kindergarten be a Part of the Public School System?"
- Kate Baldwin Free Kindergarten Association (reprinted by the

National Kindergarten Association The National Kindergarten Association (NKA) was a philanthropic organization, based in the United States, which promoted universal acceptance of the public-school kindergarten. It existed between 1909 and 1976, and its headquarters was in New ...

)
Local Living Savannah's Darin Farr outside the Kate Baldwin Kindergarten
YouTube, April 20, 2018 ;Photographs from 1932 of the kindergarten
ExteriorInterior
Buildings and structures completed in the 20th century Educational institutions established in 1899 19th-century establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Kindergarten Education in Savannah, Georgia Houston Street 134-142 Houston Street 134-142