What to See in Bluffton - Top Sights and Attractions

The Heyward House, is located in Bluffton, South Carolina. It was built in 1841 in the early Carolina Farmhouse style brought to North America by planters from the West Indies. The north parlor and the bedroom above, were the first parts of the house built by John J. Cole and his slaves in the early 1840s as a summer home for his wife Carolina Corley and their children. John J. Coles plantation was approximately 10 miles from downtown Bluffton. His father-in-law owned Moreland Plantation, located on present day Palmetto Bluff. By 1860, Cole had more than doubled the size of the house and his family, at which time the front and side windows in the front rooms were replaced with larger windows. The original parlor windows were reused in the dining room and back bedroom. The interior is clad with wide heart pine boards.

The last remaining slave cabin in Bluffton still resides on the property.

The original unattached summer kitchen was moved to the rear of the property when a large square attached kitchen was added to the main house in the 1930s. Beetles damaged the original summer kitchen and the structure was reconstructed with original and new wood.

Following the Civil War, Mr. Cole who had contracted tuberculosis during his service, died. The Cole family sold their holdings in Bluffton and moved to Texas in 1874. Mrs. Kate Du Bois, wife of the federally appointed Post Master, purchased the property then sold it in 1882 to Mrs. George Cuthbert Heyward, Sr. and it remained in the Heyward family until its purchase in 1998 by the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society. It is now preserved and open to the public as the town's only house museum and has been designated as the official welcome center for the Town of Bluffton.^[1]

Seven Oaks is located in Bluffton, South Carolina. It was built in 1850. This is a two-story house with double verandas on the south and east sides and two exterior chimneys. The house is called Seven Oaks due to seven very large live oak stumps that support the house. Some of the original interior details remain; there is a visible line running east to west down the center of the northeast parlor floor indicating that an addition was made at some time.

The first owner of the house was Colonel Middleton Stuart and his wife, Emma Barnwell Stoney. In 1866 the property was sold to Frances Marion Edward; subsequently, it was owned by Ephraim Mikell Baynard, then E. L Harrison and later by the Baynard family of Hilton Head Island.

In the 1920s, Mrs. Elizabeth Sanders operated Seven Oaks as a popular and successful boarding house for salesmen and summer visitors.

After a complete renovation which began in 2007, the house was home to a civil war museum before being sold in 2012 as a private home.^[3]

Housing. Rose Hill Plantation House is an historic Carpenter Gothic house located on US 278 in Bluffton, Beaufort County, South Carolina. It was begun in 1858 for Dr. John Kirk and Caroline Kerk, his wife, but construction was interrupted by the Civil War and not resumed until after World War II when it was renovated and finished by architect Willis Irvin for John Sturgeon and Florence Sturgeon, his wife. On May 19, 1983, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It preserves the antebellum plantation home of Dr. & Mrs. John William & Caroline Kirk, a wealthy planter and physician.

According to tradition, the house was spared ordered destruction during the Civil War after a Union soldier declared "this house is too beautiful to be burned".^[4]

The Store, is located in Bluffton, South Carolina. It was built in 1904. The Store sits on a large tract of land which is thought to have been the property of Mrs. John Hais Hardee, née Harriet Saussy. She was listed as the "Head of Household" and a "Planter" in both the 1850 and 1860 Census. There are no known records of who owned the property from 1865 to 1900 when it was owned briefly by the Trustees of the School District #2. In 1904, Jesse Davidore Peeples of Scotia, SC bought the property and built a store and a home beside it for his family. He had five children by his first wife, Willie Mae Stokes and ten by his second wife, Maud Estella Guilford. The house contained six bedrooms and a large sleeping porch.

The Store, until the late 1990s was a one-story structure surmounted by a high gable roof and which flanking enclosed side wings with shed roofs. It has been called Peeples Store. The double front doors which have glass panels in the transom, open under a shed roof front porch supported by four square posts.^[5]

Building in Bluffton, South Carolina. The Huger-Gordon House, is located in Bluffton, South Carolina. It was built in 1795. This is the only antebellum house located on the bluff overlooking the May River that survived the Burning of Bluffton on June 4, 1863. Minié balls, lodged in the front door studs give evidence of the sniping that took place between Union forces and Confederate pickets here. The frame 1+1⁄2-story building is placed on a low brick foundation of piers with a gabled roof and interior chimneys. A one-story veranda with a shed roof and chamfered posts, runs the width of the house on the riverside and the central dormer has glass doors cut into the eave of the roof and veranda. It is believed the house was built around 1795 and enlarged in the 1820s. The owner in 1863 was Colonel Ephraim Mikell Seabrook who had acquired the property from Dr. William Lowndes Hamilton in 1855. Dr. Joseph Alston Huger, II bought the property from the Seabrook's in 1882 and it remained in the Huger family until 2013. Mr. & Mrs. Hugh Gordon made alterations to the exterior and interior in the 1970s.^[7]

Building in Bluffton, South Carolina. The Fripp-Lowden House is located in Bluffton, South Carolina. It was built in 1909. This Lowcountry cottage was built in 1909 for Alfred Fripp and his wife Sallie Williams. It is a one-story frame building of pine with a porch across the facade. It is surrounded by a garden that started by Mrs. Fripp, who raised camellias. "The Sallie Fripp" can be seen here when in bloom and is now in many Bluffton gardens. The Fripps' daughter, Mrs. H. O. Lowden, Jr. continued to expand the garden.

Today, Lynn Hicks is the current owner of The Fripp-Lowden House, and major renovations are currently being completed to preserve this beautiful historic property. In addition, the building houses the studio of the noted local artist and art professor Amiri Farris.

In 1915, Mr. Fripp erected a store on the corner of the property at Calhoun and Bridge streets and sold general merchandise of all varieties. That building was damaged by an out-of-control car and demolished in 1980.^[9]