The Lowcountry abounds with antebellum ruins surrounded by marshlands and stately oak trees. Beaufort County alone boasts hundreds of ruins, and the overall effect upon visiting them can only be described as ethereal and somewhat mystical.
Though many of the ruins are on private property and aren't accessible to the public, we set out to capture a moment in time at four of the most compelling and fragile architectural reminders of a unique part of our regional past.
It's impossible to accurately consider Lowcountry ruins divorced from the context of their environments. Old Sheldon Church, just outside Beaufort, rests off a narrow country road in a grove of live oaks, surrounded by an ancient brick wall. First burned by British troops in 1799, the church was rebuilt in the Greek-temple style in 1826, only to be burned again by Sherman's troops in 1865.
What remains is the framework of the building set like a gemstone among ranks of brick columns. Preserved in their mystique, the ruins rest peacefully below arching live oak boughs, belying the double tragedy they endured.
Old Sheldon Church is a brick structure, though a number of Lowcountry ruins are constructed of tabby, a historically common concrete mixed from indigenous oyster shell, lime, sand, and water. As long as they are maintained, these structures are sound. But once deprived of protection, tabby slowly deteriorates.
Nearby, on St. Helena Island, the tabby remains of St. Helena's Chapel of Ease sit just off aptly named Land's End Road. Such "chapels of ease" were common on the Sea Islands, as it was more practical to ferry over one priest for services than to transport entire families to mainland parish churches.
Built around 1745, the chapel succumbed to an 1886 forest fire. The walls are intact, and surfaces above the windows remain, largely because they are arched and brick-reinforced.
On Dataw Island, east of Beaufort, the extensive ruins of Sams Plantation, which includes the main house, built in 1786, as well as several outbuildings and additions, demonstrate the pervasiveness of tabby construction. The property is now situated in a gated community, where homeowners take an active interest in the ruins and support the Dataw Historic Foundation. The main house, which burned around 1880, is scarcely more than piles of crumbled tabby.
The ruins of Edwards Plantation on Spring Island are approached on one side by an allée of live oaks. Beyond the house, still majestic in its ruined state, tidal marsh and river stretch almost as far as the eye can see.
At the outbreak of the Civil War the heirs of the original owner, George Edwards, abandoned the house, which mysteriously burned a few years later. Water eventually seeped into the walls, slowly eroding them. Despite preservation efforts, all that remains in some places are a few vertical feet of foundation.
These Lowcountry ruins, which today seem so otherworldly and mysterious, are what writer J. B. Jackson has called an "echo from the remote past suddenly become present and actual" -- echoes that are fading with each passing year.
RESOURCES: Be aware that the subtle wear and tear of visitor traffic may compromise fragile sites. Contact the Historic Beaufort Foundation, 843/379-3331 or www.historic-beaufort.org, for more information.
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