This lot at the corner of Sayre and Mildred Streets has been the site of a school since 1855, maybe before that. The present structure was built in 1891 and is the oldest public school building in Montgomery. During its early years, it housed an elementary school on the first floor, and a girl’s high school on the second. In 1899 the girl’s high school was relocated to the site of our present main library, and a decade later that school was combined with the boy’s high school to become an early edition of Sidney Lanier. Sayre Street public school closed in 1976, and since then the building has been put to a dozen other uses. This view is of the rear side, the entrance which delivered students onto the playground. Sayre Street was named for one of the founders of First Presbyterian Church. It was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1982.

At left is a picture of the front of the Sayre Street School taken in the early part of the previous century. Back then it was called Chilton School and it had a belfry. The school bell was rung loudly on each school day to call the students to class.

A wind storm ca 1937 blew off the bell tower and it was not replaced.

-Charles Humphries