Basic Information

• Location – Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County

  In Sea Pines Plantation, a present-day real estate development, at junction of Baynard Park Road and Plantation Drive
  

• Origin of name – Named for Captain David Cutler Braddock, commander of the colonial half-galley Beaufort in 1742.
  

• Other names – Braddock Cove, Calibogue Point, Stoney-Baynard Hall
  

• Current status – Listed on National Register of Historical Places – privately owned
  

  "Today, the tabby structure is comprised of a foundation and the outer structure or shell of the home. Seen from a distance, the ruins seem blurred. Up close, the thousands of oyster shells create a honeycomb, a complex texture that is simultaneously pocked and smooth. There are windows that look like ancient portholes, and bits of stucco still cling to the tabby. The effect is not unlike that of a medieval abbey or a Roman ruin, the remnants of a dream (BestRead Guide)."

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence
  

  Plantation was "composed of Lots 46 and 47 of Bayley's Barony [and] described as lands formerly leased by John Gamble and James Gray" (An Index to Hilton Head Names).
  

• 1793-1820 – House built by James Stoney
  

  Historians differ on exact date. The South Carolina Institute of Archeology & Anthropology frames construction between 1800 and 1820 (58). Another estimate falls as early as 1793 (An Index to Hilton Head Names), while author Robert Peeples states that "the Braddock Point Plantation house apparently was built by the Stoney's around 1796" (An Index to Hilton Head Names).
  

• November 10-11, 1861 – Civil War engagement (The War of the Rebellion)
  

• 1867 – Stoney-Baynard Hall burned sometime between the middle of August and the middle of December (Chicora Foundation Research Series 40).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,000 (at least from 1776 to 1840)
  

• Primary crops – Cotton, corn, peas, sweet potatoes
  

  The plantation also sold butter.
  

Owners

• In order – Peter Bayley, John Mark Verdier, Captain James Stoney and Captain John Stoney (1776), Dr. George Mosse Stoney, eldest son "Saucy Jack" (given name unknown, 1838), William Baynard, Catherine Adelaide and William Eddings Baynard, Ephraim Baynard, William P. Clyde (1894), Roy A. Rainey (1919), Thorne and Loomis (1931), Hilton Head Company (1951)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• House – The walls were two feet thick and constructed from tabby, "a mixture of oyster shells, some whole and others burnt to a lime powder, as well as sand and water (An Index to Hilton Head Names)."
  

  More about tabby plus photograph

Web Resources

• National Register of Historic Places
  – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1994
  – Photographs, architectural overview
  

• The Stoney-Baynard Ruins: The Story of the Ruins
  

• Stoney-Baynard Ruins Slave Dwelling, Stoney-Baynard Ruins - scroll down
  

• BestRead Guide's Stoney-Baynard Ruins - no longer online
  

• Claude Henry Neuffer, editor, Names in South Carolina, Volume I through 30 (Columbia, SC: The State Printing Company)
   Order Names in South Carolina, Volumes I-XII, 1954-1965
   Order Names in South Carolina, Index XIII-XVIII
  

• Trinkley, Chicora Foundation Research Series #24, Preliminary Historical Research on the Baynard Plantation, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina, pages 15-17
  

• Robert Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Names (Before the Contemporary Development)
  

• Natalie Adams, Michael Trinkley, and Debi Hacker, Chicora Foundation Research Series 40: In the Shadow of the Big House: Domestic Slaves at Stoney/Baynard Plantation, Hilton Head Island
  

• United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Ithica, NY: Cornell University Library, 2009)
  
  

More about Beaufort County

• Learn more about historic Beaufort County, including the lovely town of Hilton Head as well as Beaufort SC. We have helpful guides to Hilton Head history and Hilton Head libraries and museums – plus Hilton Head restaurants, Hilton Head bed & breakfasts, Hilton Head hotels, and Hilton Head real estate.