St. Helena Island is a Sea Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The island is connected to Beaufort by U.S. Highway 21. The island has a land area of about 64 sq mi (170 km2) and a population of 8,763 as of the 2010 census. It is included as part of the Hilton Head Island-Beaufort Micropolitan Area. The island is renowned for its rural Lowcountry character and being a major center of African-American Gullah culture and language. It is considered to be the geographic influence behind the children's television program Gullah Gullah Island.
St. Mary of the Annunciation Catholic Church is a Catholic church in Charleston, South Carolina, and was the first Catholic parish established in the Carolinas and Georgia. The current building at 93 Hasell Street and is the third structure to house the congregation on this site.
The Old Sheldon Church Ruins is a historic site located in northern Beaufort County, South Carolina, approximately 17 miles (30 km) north of Beaufort in the Sheldon area.
The Penn Center, formerly the Penn School, is an African-American cultural and educational center in the Corners Community, on Saint Helena Island. Founded in 1862 by Quaker and Unitarian missionaries from Pennsylvania, it was the first school founded in the Southern United States specifically for the education of African-Americans. It provided critical educational facilities to Gullah slaves freed after plantation owners fled the island, and continues to fulfill an educational mission. Leigh Richmond Miner photographed students and activities at the school.
Frogmore is an unincorporated community on St. Helena Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States, along U.S. Route 21.
Strawberry Chapel is a parochial chapel of ease in the lower part of St. John's, Berkeley Parish in Berkeley County, South Carolina that was built in 1725. It is on Strawberry Chapel Road between South Carolina State Highway 8-44 and the West Branch of the Cooper River. Bordering Strawberry's property is the South Carolina State owned historic site of the “Town of Childsbury.” It was a planned community that was settled in 1707. The town no longer exists. They were named to the National Register of Historic Places on April 26, 1972.
Fort Fremont was a military installation on Saint Helena Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina. The fort and battery is historically significant as an example of late nineteenth and early twentieth century military architecture and as one of two surviving coastal fortifications in the United States intact from the Spanish–American War era.
St. Helena Parish Chapel of Ease Ruins is a historic site in Frogmore, South Carolina on Saint Helena Island.
The Corner Packing Shed, in Frogmore, South Carolina, is a historic packing house on St. Helena Island that was built in 1930. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Isaac Fripp House Ruins is a historic house ruin and archaeological site located on Saint Helena Island near Frogmore, Beaufort County, South Carolina. The ruins are located at Bay View overlooking the junction of Chowan Creek and the Beaufort River. The two-story, tabby house dates to the early- to mid-19th century. It is associated with Isaac Fripp, a planter of sea island cotton and other staples on St. Helena Island.
The Green is a historic open-space located on Saint Helena Island near Frogmore, Beaufort County, South Carolina. It is the site of community meetings, celebrations, and other gatherings. The Green was the site of the first Darrah Hall, an auditorium and community center built about 1885 by Penn School, and destroyed in 1893. Since that time the Green has continued to serve as a gathering place for the people of St. Helena Island. At the rear of The Green is the Knights of Wise Men Lodge.
The Oaks, also known as the Cooler House, is a historic plantation house located on Saint Helena Island near Frogmore, Beaufort County, South Carolina. It was built about 1855, and is a two-story, vernacular frame I-House. Edward L. Pierce chose The Oaks as his headquarters during the military occupation of St. Helena during the American Civil War. The Oaks was the center for military and agricultural activities on the island. On June 18, 1862, Ellen Murray, who had ten days earlier arrived from Pennsylvania, opened the Penn School for Freedmen in a back room of the house. The house also served as a hotel for military personnel from Port Royal, superintendents, and teachers.
Seaside Plantation, also known as the Edgar Fripp Plantation, is a historic plantation house located on Saint Helena Island near Beaufort, Beaufort County, South Carolina. It was built about 1795 to 1810, and is a two-story, frame dwelling in a transitional Georgian / Federal style. It features one-story hip roofed portico. Seaside was one of the plantations participating in the Port Royal Experiment and had as its labor superintendent Charles Pickard Ware (1840–1921). Charlotte Forten Grimké (1837-1914) also resided at Seaside Plantation. Along with Tombee Plantation, Seaside is one of only a few remaining antebellum plantation houses on St. Helena. Also on the property are the contributing original, brick-lined well, a clapboard shed, a large barn with clapboard siding and tin roof, and a round concrete and oyster shell silo.
Robert Simmons House, also known as the Willie Simmons House, is a historic home located on Saint Helena Island near Frogmore, Beaufort County, South Carolina. The original section was built about 1910 by farmer Robert Simmons, and subsequently expanded. It is a double pen house type on metal piers, with a full-width shed roof porch supported by wood posts. It is a rare example of a vernacular architectural form once common to St. Helena Island.
Eddings Point Community Praise House is a historic church located on Saint Helena Island near Frogmore, Beaufort County, South Carolina. It was built about 1900, and is a narrow, one-story gable roofed building of frame construction with the entrance in the gable end. It is significant as one of four known extant African-American praise houses on St. Helena Island, and was a central place in the religious and social life of the black islanders.
Mary Jenkins Community Praise House is a historic church located on Saint Helena Island near Frogmore, Beaufort County, South Carolina. It was built about 1900, and is a narrow, one-story gable roofed building of frame construction with the entrance in the gable end. It is significant as one of four known extant African-American praise houses on St. Helena Island. The building remains in use.
Orange Grove Plantation is a historic plantation house and national historic district located on Saint Helena Island near Frogmore, Beaufort County, South Carolina. The district encompasses one contributing building and two contributing sites, and reflects the early-20th century influx of Northerners onto St. Helena Island. The plantation was first recorded in 1753 when Peter Perry purchased 473 acres. Perry owned 46 chattel slaves. The plantation house, built about 1800, was in poor condition when Henry L. Bowles (1866-1932), a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, bought the property in 1928. He demolished it and built the present house in the same year. The property also includes the tabby ruin of the kitchen, built about 1800, and a tabby-walled cemetery containing three early-19th century graves of the Fripp and Perry families.
St. Luke's Parish Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery is a historic cemetery and chapel site at 574 William Hilton Parkway in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The cemetery was established in the 18th century, and includes a fine collection late 18th and early 19th century funerary art. It also includes the 1846 Baynard Mausoleum, believed to be the oldest surviving structure on the island. Somewhere on the property are the remains of the St. Luke's Chapel, which was destroyed in the 1860s.
The Parish Church of St. Helena is a historic Anglican church in Beaufort, South Carolina. Founded in 1712, it is among the oldest churches in the United States. Its building—erected in 1724 but expanded and substantially modified in the 19th century—is among the oldest continuously used church buildings in the United States. The church is a contributing property to the Beaufort Historic District, and the broader parish encompasses several sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Beaufort County.
