Hilton Head Island South Carolina Area Information
Hilton Head Island is one of South Carolina’s most beautiful barrier islands with wide, sandy beaches and 7 ½ foot tides. It is shaped like a foot with an approximate measure of 4 miles by 12 miles.

Development here is environmentally friendly with building covenants that give the island a special character. There are restrictions to set-backs, elevations, building materials, signs, colors and use. Many acres are reserved for non-development, public parks, beach access and nature preserves.

Hilton Head Island is a terrific place to live and visit. There are many championship golf courses, numerous tennis clubs, several marinas, plentiful shopping, many fine and casual restaurants, arts and many other year-round activities. View Local area Links

The weather is sensational and with four distinct seasons. Our winters are generally short and very mild. The spring and fall seasons are temperate – perfect for golf and just about anything. Summer is when the family vacation season swings into full gear.

Every spring, Hilton Head Island hosts the PGA Tour’s WORLDCOM Classic, The Heritage of Golf held at the world famous Harbourtown Golf Club. It follows the Masters, held at Augusta National, so there is always an impressive field of players.

There is a wide variety of real estate from which to choose, both luxury and economical properties for year-round living and vacation-investment use. This site has plentiful information about the many possibilities so please, come and join us!

The Hilton Head Area and Development

The Hilton Head area includes Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, Okatie, Hardeeville, Ridgeland and Daufuskie Island South Carolina. Sometime we use “Hilton Head” in this site to refer to Hilton Head Island and the surrounding areas. The growth and development of Hilton Head Island has exploded into Bluffton, the next town across the bridge. Many of the Bluffton residential planned and gated communities follow the pattern of Sea Pines Resort, the community that ‘wrote the book on building covenants and gated communities. Some people from Bluffton say that they live in “Bluffton-Hilton Head”. The retirement community of Sun City Hilton Head is 13 miles from Hilton Head!

The original bridge to Hilton Head Island was built in 1950. It opened and closed every time a boat sailed down the Intracoastal Waterway from Skull Creek to Calibogue Sound. Today the Island is almost fully developed and The Town continues to make improvements. An example that is underway is the ‘Bridge to the Beach’ project that will improve bicycle and pedestrian traffic from the Charles Fraser Bridge at Broad Creek to the Forest Beach public beach access at the Coligny Circle. There will be new bike paths and bridges from the beach on both sides of Pope Avenue and a new Compass Rose Park dedicated to Sea Pines Founder Charles Fraser at the corner of Pope Avenue and New Orleans Road. Another example underway is the renovation of Mathews Drive, a mid-Island thoroughfare. This undivided two-lane road will have bike paths on both sides and will be widened to have turning lanes and landscaped medians. There will be new traffic circles at Marshland Road, Beach City Road and between Port Royal Plaza and Woodlake Villas.

The Town of Bluffton, SC has come a long way since the Maye River beach and boating areas were the attraction for a small group of Southerners each summer. Today, Bluffton and Beaufort County are among the fastest growing areas in the State of South Carolina with new residential communities and commercial developments added every year. This development continues toward Hardeeville, Ridgeland, Beaufort and Savannah, Georgia. This region is part of the South Carolina low country, your future home.

Bluffton South Carolina Area Information
Bluffton, South Carolina is centrally located near Hilton Head Island, Beaufort SC and Savannah GA. Bluffton is a charming town with Antebellum homes, historic churches and unique shops that line the moss-shaded streets of the downtown historic district. Bluffton, a town whose name refers to its location atop a scenic bluff along the May River, also is home to a growing number of new residential communities and luxury golf course communities. Some of South Carolina’s best schools within the Beaufort County School District. There are many options for public and private education in Bluffton.

The History of Bluffton

The town of Bluffton, located in what was the King’s grant to Lord Proprietor Colleton, has had quite an interesting and important history.

Situated on the “High Bluff” overlooking the beautiful May River,
it came to be, in the early 1800′s, the summering place where the families of the rice and cotton planters of the surrounding “Low Country” could escape the heat, insects and malaria of the near sea-level plantations. It was a merry place where everyone swam, boated, fished, crabbed, shrimped and, in the cooler weather, enjoyed the oysters, clams and scallops as the Indians long before them had done and as the present day residents still do.

Bluffton grew… Travel between the coastal towns in the early days was, of course, mainly by water. So, as it was situated between Savannah on the south and Beaufort and Charleston on the north, Bluffton became an important distribution center. Out of Bluffton to the coastal cities flowed the crops from the farms and plantations (and often from there to Europe). And back came the supplies the farms needed. Soon the main street of Bluffton, leading to the town wharf, boasted well-stocked general stores and boarding houses to serve the increasing number of travelers. This commerce brought Bluffton year-round residents.

In 1844 the planters around Bluffton became angered by Federal tariffs which were making the goods they imported from abroad excessively expensive. Out of this discontent grew the “Bluffton Movement.” Incensed planters gathered beneath what became known as the “Secession Oak” and the secessionist movement was born. Sixteen years later South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. On June 4, 1863, several Union gunboats and a transport carrying 1,000 infantrymen steamed up the river to Bluffton because, as the officer in charge wrote in his report, “This town has been the headquarters for the rebels for a long time in this vicinity.” Troops were landed with orders to fire the town. Confederate soldiers attacked but were outnumbered and outgunned. When shelling and torching ended and the Union forces withdrew, 34 or more homes, churches and other buildings had been destroyed. This, of course, was a severe blow to the town which took years to overcome.

But Bluffton is as resilient as it is unique. Its antebellum homes and churches, many of which still stand, are as interesting today as on the day they were built. And their third and fourth generation owners are as proud of them as their great grandparents were. Interspersed with them are newer structures and newer people: scholars, artists, musicians, writers, scientists, farmers and businessmen from many places. And an increasing number of young people who work in Savannah or Beaufort or Hilton Head Island choose to live in Bluffton, drawn not only by the bluff, the river and the weather but most of all by a feeling of what can only be an extremely strong mixture of community and independence . . .and that’s Bluffton.

Daufuskie Island Area Information
Daufuskie Island is located one mile across the Calibogue Sound and southwest from Hilton Head Island. The name is taken from the Gullah which means “The first key” or barrier island north of Savannah Georgia. The beautiful and sleepy coastal barrier island is comprised of only eight square miles (5miles x 3.7 miles), 5,000 acres and is home to approximately 750 year-round residents.

The Island is surrounded by the Calibogue Sound, the Atlantic Ocean, the Cooper and New Rivers and Mungin Creek. Access is by water only. Ferries and water taxis run from Hilton Head and Savannah and take 20-45 minutes. Most Islanders leave their cars in secured embarkation centers on Hilton Head Island. On Daufuskie, travel is mostly by electric cars and golf carts. Islanders love the quiet and undeveloped character of the Island. A bridge to Daufuskie Island is not planned and will probably never be built.

The Island’s two main residential areas are Haig Point and Melrose Plantation which includes the Bloody Point area. The Daufuskie Island Club and Resort is located at Melrose and Bloody Point. Other less developed areas of Daufuskie include Oak Ridge which borders the Ocean and has ocean front lots for sale and some projects planned, the Historic area which is home to many native Islanders and the Webb Tract for which there are future plans for the largest marina in South Carolina with a marina community.

The history of Daufuskie Island includes the construction of the famous Haig Point Lighthouse that was built in 1873 and still stands today. It is the symbol for the Haig Point community. A more recent history of Daufuskie includes a year in the life of author Pat Conroy when he taught school in the Island’s two room schoolhouse, which still stands. The autographical experience was the subject of Conroy’s book “The Water is Wide” published in 1972 and about which a film adaptation “Conrack” was made in 1974.