Joseph Fraser III Speaks at the Opening Ceremony about Charles Fraser, Hilton Head Island and Public Art
The family of Charles Fraser, Hilton Head Island Town officials and approximately 75 townspeople were on hand for the opening of Hilton Head Island’s
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The ribbon cutting ceremony for Compass Rose Park. From L-R: Town Mayor Tom Peeples, Charles Fraser’s brother Joe, grandson Samuel, daughter Laura Lawton, widow Mary Wyman Stone Fraser, nephew Joseph Fraser III and Town Manager Steve Riley
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Compass Rose Park at the corner of Pope Avenue and New Orleans Road on Saturday, April 26, 2008 at 10 am. Charles Fraser had the largest collection of maps of South Carolina in the country. A French map had a north-pointing fleur de lis and compass that Mr. Fraser chose it as the symbol for the Sea Pines Company that he started in 1957. Charles Fraser died in December, 2002 in a boating accident in the Turks and Caicos. He was 72 years old.
At the opening ceremony, Hilton Head Mayor Tom Peeples spoke about how the Park’s location had been a restaurant and auto repair shop before the site was purchased by the Town. Joseph Fraser III, Charles Fraser’s nephew spoke and remembered Charles Fraser as a visionary and an innovator, a developer who used protective covenants as part of his community’s plan and who blended nature’s colors and materials with dedicated open spaces, required landscape planning and site planning for houses around specimen trees, who formed community associations and architectural review boards and was the first to adopt ‘T’ streets in a development.
Joseph Fraser III said, “It is fitting that the Compass Rose Park is here on Pope Avenue because all of the land across from Compass Rose Park was once Sea Pines Plantation. The Park is a gathering place where everyone can be reminded of our development history and because boggy gut, at the eastern end of the park, is the headwaters of the 600-acre Forest Preserve which is perhaps the Sea Pines Company’s greatest gift to Hilton Head Island. Along Pope Avenue there are several churches for which the land was donated by The Sea Pines Company, a tangible reminder of Charles Fraser’s commitment to building a strong Island community. Charles understood that he had a duty to be a good steward of the land. Today, because of his vision and the hard work of the early development pioneers and by the continuing efforts of the Town and many of its citizens, we are all able to enjoy this Island paradise. Today Hilton Head Island is a more complete community and a better place to live, work and play than ever before in the modern development era. Just as the Compass Rose was the early symbol for the development of Hilton Head Island, I suggest that today we should adopt it as a symbol that points us towards the future we envision for Hilton Head Island. Appropriately, the Compass Rose Fountain right over here is named Pointing the Way.
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Charles Fraser’s grandson Samuel on the Spinning Rose Fountain.
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It should challenge us to make our Island an even better place by continuing protect our natural environment, by continuing to improve our infrastructure and public spaces, by continuing to support our schools all programs for our children and by continuing our strong tradition of supporting our non-profit sector with our time and dollars and by including these organizations in our estate planning to build endowments that benefit the Island long after we are gone, and by continuing to improve the vacation experience for our resort guests.
It should also challenge us today to support the Public Art Fund and the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry. Charles understood the importance of public parks and gathering places. He also understood the importance of art in these places. The alligator statue at the Plantation Club and the Seward Johnson Lunch Break statue in Harbortown are two of the earliest examples of public art on the Island. The Public Art Fund will be leveraged by the Community Foundation by contributing one dollar for every three dollars raised by the community, businesses and foundations. The artist has been selected for the first statue which will be here in Compass Park of Charles Fraser Walking the Alligator. It will be on the grass to my right and it should be completed sometime next year.
I want to particularly thank the Heritage Classic Foundation and the Hilton Head Island Foundation Fund for their very generous donations for this park. As the Public Art Fund grows, additional works of art will be added to our Hilton Head Island collection. Finally, I’d like to thank the Public Art Committee for their time and hard work. It has been a privilege today to speak about our compass rose.”
The Design of Compass Rose Park
The Park is an artistic combination of plazas, gazebos, fountains, waterfalls and landscape – a unique and distinctive accomplishment by the Town of Hilton Head Island and Architect Ed Drane who received many compliments from those who attended the Park’s opening. Pointing the Way
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The Reflecting Pond and Bubbling Spring
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fountain is located at the entrance to Compass Rose Park that is also defined by a sturdy wood trellis that arches over the Park entrance. The fountain with a bronze compass rose sculpture that once adorned the first security gatehouse to Sea Pines is easily seen from passers by on neighboring Pope Avenue. Behind the fountain is the Plaza comprised of three patios with canvass-topped gazebos that surround the Reflection Pond with a Bubbling Spring, reminiscent of the artesion wells of Hilton Head Island for which pumps were not needed. The Plaza with the Reflecting Pond is an inviting place for visitors to stop, relax, meet friends and enjoy the Park. A waterfall from the Reflection Pond feeds The Spillway, inspired by old rice and cotton mills that had spillways and water wheels. At the end of The Spillway another waterfall transitions across black tile to a stream that flows under The Gazebo at the end of the Park and into the Lily Pond at the headwaters of the boggy gut.
The Spinning Rose Fountain sits besides the path that runs from the entrance to the Park to the Gazebo at the Lily Pond. It is a granite block inscribed with the fleur de lis that points north while the elevated compass spins on water power. Architect Ed Drane explained that it’s there for fun and visitors are expected to sit on the compass and enjoy the ride.
Panels that Tell the Story of Sea Pines Will be Added to the Park
Events of the Sea Pines story will be told on panels with words and photo images to be placed on six of the Plaza walls of Compass Rose Park. Included in
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The Stream flows under the Gazebo to the Lily Pond at the headwaters of boggy gut.
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approximately 24 panels will be tributes to Charles Fraser’s architectural design, construction philosophy, restrictive covenants, architectural review board, commitment to quality and preservation and respect for the environment; acknowledgements of the contributions of his brother Joe and internationally famous landscape architect Hideo Sasaki; the building of the swing bridge to the Island in 1956 and the construction of the Hilton Head Inn; the construction of the Sea Pines Ocean Course, the first golf course on Hilton Head Island and the subsequent construction of the Harbourtown Golf Links designed by Jack Nicklaus and Pete Dye; the first Sea Pines Heritage Golf Classic won by Arnold Palmer and the incorporation of the Town of Hilton Head in 1983 with one of its goals to preserve the Sea Pines vision for all of the Island.
A Bronze Statue of Charles Fraser Walking the Gator Will Be Added
A popular photograph of Charles Fraser dressed in a suit and tie and wearing straw hat while carrying a walking stick and walking beside an alligator was
published in the Saturday Evening Post and achieved national attention for Sea Pines and Hilton Head Island at a time when neither was well known. A bronze statue of the image will be located on the lawn of Compass Rose Park in 2009 and will also be the first project to be funded by the Public Art Fund. A plaque will be added to the Plaza near the statue will say: “This statue is based on the picture of Charles Fraser on a casual jaunt with an alligator as it appeared in a special edition of the Saturday Evening Post on “People on the Way Up.” It caused a media sensation and gave Sea Pines national attention for the first time. It’s donation to the Town by the Community Foundation of the Low Country, Inc. will be made possible by the generous donations of many who give to their Public Art Fund. The artists are Susie Chisholm for the statue of Charles and Darrell Davis for the alligator.“
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Pointing the Way Fountain
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The Hilton Head Public Art Fund
The Community Foundation of the Lowcountry has established a matching gift program for public art projects. The Public Art Fund will be leveraged by contributing one dollar for every three raised by community members for public art projects throughout Hilton Head Island. The vision is to use the fund for multiple projects over many years. Along with the Town of Hilton Head Island, the community foundation’s goal is to bring art into the public realm and introduce it into the lives of the community, engage and uplift the viewer, add to civic pride and enhance the unique place that is Hilton Head Island.
The Public Art Fund is a unique fund of the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, a nonprofit 501 ( c ) 3 organization. All contributions to the community foundation are fully tax deductible as allowable by law. Depending on your situation, should you want to make a gift to the Fund or for more information, please contact Emmy Rooney, Vice President for Development and Donor Services at the Community Foundation: 843-681-9100 or erooney@cf-lowcountry.org. The Community Foundation of the Lowcountry is located at 4 Northridge Drive, Suite A, P.O. Box 23019, Hilton Head Island, S.C. 29925. Their website address is http://www-cf-lowcountry.org.
