I fell in love with The Lowcountry long before I ever laid my eyes on its beauty.
Years ago, I picked up Pat Conroy’s book “Price of Tides” and couldn’t put it down. It was not only the story that kept me completely captivated but Conroy’s lyrical portrayal of The Lowcountry. He began The Prince of Tides with four words "My wound is geography." Then he added, "It is also my anchorage, my port of call." His stories, often inspired by his own troubled family life, overflow with his love and profound passion for the landscape of the South Carolina’s cost.
“When I began to write my books, I thought I carried the comeliness of the Lowcountry deep inside me. Its beauty was a shining thing and a living thing that would never leave me as long as I was true to that starry, everlasting river-fed country of my art. That was Beaufort’s gift to me. I can’t write an English sentence without breaking out in song praising the everlasting summons of these shining sea islands we call home. When I came to Beaufort I had struck upon a land so beautiful I had to hunt for other words that ached with the joyous, carnal charms of the green marshes that seemed to be the source of all life. I would watch the breath of earth move the high tides of spring as shrimp boats inched out to sea at first light. On the beaches, loggerhead turtles would emerge in the fire-struck linens (maybe havens?) of full moons to deposit glistening, sea-born eggs into funnels of beach-sculpted sands as herds of white-tailed deer drifted like smoke through palmetto forests. Osprey would impale the mullets from golf course lagoons, and cobia would lace their way through salt rivers in their own madness to spawn as blue herons hunted in perfect stillness, as hundreds of thousands of horseshoe crabs gathered to mate in the shallows along Land’s End. This is the homeplace the Marine Corps brought me to as a boy. In my stories, my currents are shad-honored and dolphin-laced. They bring the sure knowledge that the lord of waters watches over them in the deepest pride of creation.”
“A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life “, a nonfiction book published after his death containing his interviews, speeches, and letters.
It wasn’t until many years later (and a couple of Pat Conroy’s books later) that I found myself in Beaufort, located in the lower half of Port Royal Island.
“There's something that gets me about being at sea level and seeing nature's drama play out. It's enticing, it's liberating and it's more seductive than any other place I've been. The truth is the house and the marshes won't let me go.”, Pat Conroy commented about living in Beaufort in an interview for the Wall Street Journal, a couple of years before his death in 2016.
The coastal town of Beaufort, a historic gem nestled in the heart of the Lowcountry has beautiful antebellum homes dating back to the pre-civil war period. A summer retreat for wealthy plantation owners, Beaufort was one of the only Southern towns Union troops chose to occupy rather than burn during the Civil War. The entire downtown is designated a National Historic Landmark.
During a short, overnight visit we stayed on Bay Street, with the Beaufort River across the street, and five minutes from the Point, a neighborhood set along the Beaufort’s eastern edge.
The Point dates back to the Revolutionary War and is one of the best areas to see early American and Beaufort architecture.
At the start of the Revolutionary War, the entire area that encompasses the Point today was purchased by a man named James Black, a well-known ship-builder. When Black passed away in 1780, the Point was divided up among his heirs, and pieces were sold to become smaller tracts of land to develop.
It wasn’t until several years after some of the Point’s original houses were built that the neighborhood became part of Beaufort. In 1809, the Beaufort mayor appealed to the South Carolina General Assembly to make the Point neighborhood a part of the city of Beaufort. As the years went by, the Point became known as the wealthiest and most beautiful neighborhood in the Lowcountry. This is where you can enjoy some of Beaufort’s largest, oldest, and most expensive homes utilizing the very best in the antebellum architecture style.
A beautifully designed Lowcountry home is breathtaking with its air of elegance, grace, and history. Lowcountry style architecture developed in the late 1700’s and is still constructed today as the most efficient design for the hot subtropical climate of the southeast U.S.
Lowcountry buildings historically have been constructed of timber and set on pilings or have a raised first floor due to the often swampy environment, high tide levels, and hurricane flooding.
Spacious shady verandas, accented by columns or pillars, wrap around the house and large windows are used to allow warm inside air to escape in the cooler evening and giving residents a shady place to relax and socialize, while still allowing light into the interior. Windows are framed by wooden shutters, used to keep out inclement weather and protect against gusting coastal winds.
Wide furnished screened porches, enclosed with screens, used for sitting during the day or sleeping on warm nights.
Veranda and porch ceilings are often painted with “haint blue”, a soft blue-green shade that South Carolina’s Gullah people, who are descendants of African slaves, believed would keep away evil spirits. Some thought that the color repelled insects and others enjoyed the soothing brightness that seemed to extend the light of evenings.
Large spacious rooms with high ceilings and doors and windows at each end allow air to flow freely through the house. High ceilings gave warm air a place to go before being ventilated through the upper part of double-hung windows. Large rooms are also perfect for large social gatherings of friends and family.
Many older homes had light-colored or silver-metal roofs made of lead, tin or copper – long lasting and ideal for keeping out tropical rains and reflecting the sun’s rays.
Landscaping features include massive live-oak trees festooned with hanging moss grow throughout the south and provide natural shade.
The classic Lowcountry home is beloved, and deeply rooted in tradition. Southerners and visitors continue to love the grace and ambiance of Lowcountry architecture and, of course, the majestic Southern live oak trees that are the emblems of the South.
