Staff reports
Tickets are on sale for Historic Beaufort Foundation’s 50th Fall Festival of Houses and Gardens tour, October 19 and 20, featuring homes of the National Historic Landmark District and a classic Lowcountry property, Tombee on St. Helena Island.
One of the Lowcountry’s most-anticipated annual events, this year’s Saturday tour, Oct. 19, focuses on Beaufort’s National Historic Landmark District. Historic homes, beautiful gardens, tree-lined streets and a historic church. Tickets for Saturday’s tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. are $65 for HBF members and $75 for non-members.
Sunday’s Southern Brunch & Tour will provide a unique glimpse inside historic Tombee, one of the few surviving pre-Civil War houses remaining on any of the Beaufort Sea Islands. Tickets, which include brunch during the 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. event Oct. 20, are $200 per person for HBF members and $225 for non-members.
There is a 10 percent discount for bundling both Saturday and Sunday tours.
Tickets are available online at https://historicbeaufort.org/. Organizers encourage early ticket purchases because these tours typically sell out, attracting visitors from across the country. All sales are final, and tours will be held rain or shine. Online ticket sales close Oct. 17 at 11:59 p.m.
“We are so fortunate each year to have owners of these magnificent properties offer them to us for these tours,” HBF Executive Director Cynthia Jenkins said in a news release. “To be invited to walk through these homes and gardens is a rare treat. The Sunday brunch at Tombee will be exceptional, as this was one of the Lowcountry jewels restored by Savannah preservationist Jim Williams in the 1970s.”
The Fall Festival of Houses & Gardens and the springtime Lafayette Soirée are the primary annual fundraisers for the foundation. Proceeds from the tours assist HBF to ensure that Beaufort’s historic and architectural legacy remains strong.
Tour of the Beaufort Historic District — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19
The Saturday walking tour will lead visitors through a historic and architectural timeline dating from the late 18th century and into the late 19th century.
Saturday’s Tour highlights include the Elizabeth Hext House (Riverview), ca. 1805-25; the Elizabeth Barnwell Gough House, ca. 1800; the John A. Cuthbert House, ca. 1810; and the James Rhett House (Rhett’s Folly), ca. 1886.
Also featured will be St. Helena’s Anglican Church, ca. 1817-1842; the E.A. Scheper House, ca. 1890; and the McGrath-Scheper House, ca. 1852
The John Mark Verdier House, ca. 1804, which underwent a comprehensive exterior renovation in 2021 followed by a rare restoration in 2023 of the Federal Period door surround and entrance, will also be on the tour this year. This year’s Saturday properties are located throughout Beaufort’s National Historic Landmark district.
Southern Brunch & Tour at historic Tombee on St. Helena Island — 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 20
Historic Tombee, ca. 1790-1800, is the focus of the Sunday Southern Brunch & Tour. Visitors will experience a Southern brunch and an exclusive tour of one of the few surviving pre-Civil War houses remaining on any of the Beaufort Sea Islands.
Rarely open to tours, Tombee is privately owned and is an outstanding example of the Beaufort Style of architecture applied to a Federal Period residence. Constructed on a raised tabby foundation, the two-story house was built in a T-shape with three main rooms on each floor, with a central hall.
The house and grounds remained in the hands of descendants of formerly enslaved people until 1971. Well-known Savannah preservationist and antique dealer Jim Williams sensitively restored the house and grounds in the mid 1970’s. Interior architectural details were carefully preserved during the restoration.
Tombee was the 39th restoration completed by Williams and the first of two in Beaufort County. The house was listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Details about the home and life on the property were chronicled by author Theodore Rosengarten in his book “Tombee: Portrait of a Cotton Planter,” based on the plantation journal of Thomas B. Chaplin. Chaplin’s diary recorded events that were part of daily life and agricultural pursuits in the mid-19th century at Tombee and St. Helena Island. Births, deaths, and marriages of both white and enslaved people were recorded.
Historic Beaufort Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit education foundation created to preserve, protect, and present sites and artifacts of historic, architectural, and cultural interest throughout Beaufort County, South Carolina. For more information on the entity’s mission and history, please visit historicbeaufort.org and follow them on social media, including Facebook and Instagram.
