The Stoney- Baynard Ruins

Circa 1793, these ruins are of a plantation house and its slave quarters built by Captain Jack Stoney.  Over time, the land has exchanged many owners as Hilton Head Island has developed, esp. post Civil War.

Oblivious to us..... 

The home was seized by the Federal government and used as a  Union headquarters during the Civil War.

Tabby bricks were made from oyster shells and constituted the foundation walls.

The main house caught fire in 1867, and the first floor atop this foundation wall was destroyed.

The Baynard family was able to purchase the home again in 1875, but could not manage it for long, and over the next eighty years the land passed through several owners.  The forest took over and the remaining structure was not maintained.  In 1966 it was declared a permanent open space.  It eventually became a National Historic Site.

Here stand the foundations of the very modest slave quarters, only 336 sqare feet which housed two slave families within its damp walls.

Spanish moss