History Park Considered for Hilton Head Island

Courtesy of www.islandpacket.com

By LAURA NAHMIAS
lnahmias@islandpacket.com
843-706-8169
Published Saturday, January 2, 2010

History park proposal considered for Hilton Head Island

A Revolutionary War-era cemetery and an early-1800s mausoleum on Hilton Head Island are the centerpieces of a proposed history park an area group says will bring history to life.

The cemetery and mausoleum, owned by the Heritage Library Foundation, stand at the headwaters of Broad Creek, near the intersection of Mathews Drive and William Hilton Parkway.

"This (site) was really the center of civilization for Hilton Head Island," said Jason Stevens, a foundation volunteer who helped develop the proposal along with foundation president Robert Smith.

Before the Civil War, the island had as many as 25 plantations, said Smith. Plantation owners attended church at Mt. Zion Chapel of Ease, a small wooden structure on the site. Their slaves worshipped in a separate prayer house. Both structures were dismantled by Union soldiers during the Civil War to build temporary housing for themselves.

But that wasn't the site's first brush with history.

In 1781, it was the location of the ambush of Revolutionary-era landowner and patriot Ambrose Davant, Stevens said.

Hilton Head Islanders supported the Revolutionary rebels and drew the ire of nearby Daufuskie Islanders, who supported the English Crown. Tories from Daufuskie rowed to Hilton Head and lay in wait for Davant in the woods near where the cemetery now stands.

They shot him dead.

Later, in 1795, the first body was buried in the cemetery, which now includes members of some of the island's leading families -- Baynards, Kirks and Stoneys.

The 2.3-acre site also included a muster house and Masonic lodge, according to a 1825 map.

The mausoleum and cemetery largely fell out of use by the end of the Civil War.

"People drive by this site every day and are completely unaware of its historical significance," Stevens said after he recounted the skirmishes and stories of the people who lived and died near the island's core.

The mausoleum and cemetery are inaccessible from the highway. Shrouded in moss and with only a few historical markers to highlight the area, most people pay little attention to the place that was once at the epicenter of Hilton Head social life in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Stevens said.

Foundation members want to place markers where the church and other buildings stood.

Another part of the plan is to grow crops similar to those planted at the plantations, including indigo and a local strain of cotton known as sea island cotton.

The foundation is asking the town to consider ways that it can promote the site as a tourist attraction by adding historical markers and information kiosks, as well as developing town-owned land near the site for parking and bike access.

The town's Public Facilities Committee will consider the proposal Tuesday.

The foundation's ideas are still flexible and funding hasn't been discussed, said Curtis Coltrane, assistant town manager. He said the site, so close to the parkway, might be difficult to develop but the town is open to suggestions.

Foundation president Smith believes the site would be a boon for the island.

"It will give the community and our visitors a wonderful place to learn about and celebrate the Island's fascinating history," he wrote in a foundation newsletter.

Hilton Head Island