When carefully studied and observed the full range of the city’s history and its changing patterns of development unfold to provide a unique sense of place: a tangible link to Lowcountry history through the architecture of an evolving community.
South Carolina’s second oldest city’s plan was designed to fit the land and to meet the waters of the Beaufort River on three sides. Historic research has yet to reveal who designed the original Town Plan for Beaufort but clearly the grid pattern, typical of the early 18th century, was designed to provide a healthy open community that would benefit from the natural breezes off the water.
The original plat was made up of 397 available lots. Four public lots, intersected by Carteret and Calvert (now Craven) Street, dominated the interior portion of the southeast segment of the grid. Most of the rectangular blocks east of Carteret Street were divided into six or more lots; those to the west into four or six. Twenty-four lots of lesser size, presumably planned for commercial use, were sited on the north side of the unnamed street adjacent to the river. Lots twice the size of the average plots for mansions were set to the northwest of the waterfront overlooking the marshes. What is now Wilmington Street was the west boundary of the town, Prince Street the north boundary and East Street the east boundary.
“It is a remarkable fact that these neighboring three communities developing simultaneously, should have each so successfully created their own high quality, individual architectural design.”
“Beaufort’s houses, free standing on large lots, are more akin to the architecture of southern plantations of the period, plantations brought into town, than anything found in Charleston or Savannah.”
Beaufort was, and is, defined by its coastal setting
and strategic location and the architecture that developed
over the past three centuries took full advantage of both.
and strategic location and the architecture that developed
over the past three centuries took full advantage of both.
The Beaufort Style
The Beaufort Style is based primarily on five key architectural elements that generally are found in more rural settings. The large houses of Beaufort were built on spacious lawns unlike the Savannah urban rowhouses and the famous Single Houses of Charleston.
Architectural elements typical of Beaufort are:
- a raised foundation usually tabby or brick,
- a southern orientation (toward the Beaufort River),
- porticos and piazzas on the south façade,
- low pitched roofs (so not to trap as much heat in the summer), and
- a T-shape plan.
Beaufort’s colonial era settlers adopted building techniques based on the topography and climate of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Houses with five bay wide facades raised high above the ground to better catch the breezes and protect from high tides. Deep porches shaded the interiors while low-pitched roofs were employed so not to trap heat. The ‘Beaufort-T’, which seems to have first appeared in the late Federal Period, allowed better cross ventilation in the back rooms of the houses. Later in the 19th century we see the T-shape tied to piazzas wrapping three sides of the house – always on the southern elevation.
One early nineteenth century traveler described Beaufort as “the wealthiest, most aristocratic and cultivated town of its size in America, a town, which though small in number of inhabitants, produced statesmen, scholars, sailors and divines, whose names and fame are known throughout the country.”
Beaufort’s residential architecture evolved and adapted to the styles and fashion of each major American architectural period. Historic Beaufort Foundation was established to protect and preserve the architectural characteristics of this important and unique colonial period settlement.
Our challenge in the 21st century is to ensure our historic past is not overwhelmed by modern life and that we protect the precious tangible elements of this very special place.