1793 Plantation Ruins on Hilton Head Island
115 Plantation Drive, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Sea Pines Resort gate fee of approximately $9 to enter; no separate ruins admission.
Access
Limited Access
Sandy paths and grass; tabby ruins are uneven; informal site access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1793 · National Register of Historic Places · Sea Island Cotton Plantation Era · Civil War Union Occupation
The land at the southern tip of Hilton Head Island that became the Stoney-Baynard Plantation was originally part of Braddock's Point Plantation, a sea-island cotton operation. Captain Jack Stoney, a Revolutionary War officer, built the main house around 1793 using tabby, the regional construction material made of oyster shell, lime, sand, and water poured into wooden forms.
The property changed hands in 1845 when the Bank of Charleston, which had taken the plantation through foreclosure, sold it to William Edings Baynard, a wealthy planter from Edisto Island. Baynard expanded the operation. He died in 1849 and was interred in a private mausoleum elsewhere on Hilton Head Island. The plantation remained in the Baynard family until federal forces occupied Beaufort County during the Civil War.
Union troops landed on Hilton Head in November 1861 and held the island for the duration of the war. The Stoney-Baynard main house was used as a Union headquarters during the occupation, then burned at some point before federal forces departed. The exact date and circumstances of the fire are not fully documented in surviving records.
What remains today are the standing tabby walls of the two-story main house, the chimney footing for the overseer's house, the foundation of a slave dwelling, and footings used by Union troops to anchor a tent. The site is on the National Register of Historic Places. The land is held by the Sea Pines Community Services Associates and is accessible to the public during daylight hours, with a small parking area and interpretive signage off Plantation Drive.
Sources
William Baynard owned the plantation for only four years before his death in 1849. He was buried in a Baynard family mausoleum in the Zion Cemetery several miles away, not on the plantation grounds. Local lore holds that Baynard's funeral procession, which reportedly passed near the main house on its way to interment, has been observed retracing its route in the years since.
The most consistent reports describe a solitary male figure in 19th century formal dress, sometimes seen walking among the tabby walls in the failing light. Less common but more striking accounts describe a procession of indistinct figures moving along the historical route from the main house toward the mausoleum site.
The burning of the main house during Union occupation is the more documented trauma at the site, though it is rarely the focus of paranormal reports. The Civil War occupation displaced the plantation's enslaved population, who were emancipated under the Port Royal Experiment of 1862, but those experiences have not generated specific haunting narratives at the ruins.
The site is open during daylight hours only. Most reports come from late afternoon visitors when the live oaks above the ruins cast long shadows and the temperature drops with the coastal breeze. The ruins themselves, with their broken tabby walls and absent roof, lend themselves to suggestive shapes in the periphery of vision. Whether what visitors report is residual memory of the plantation's history or pareidolia in shifting marsh light, the Baynard funeral procession remains the legend most consistently attached to the site.
Notable Entities
Walk among the tabby ruins of the 1793 plantation main house, including the chimney footing for the overseer's house and the foundation of a slave dwelling. Open daily 6 AM to 8 PM. Interpretive panels at the site detail Captain Jack Stoney's original construction, the Baynard family's later ownership, and the Union occupation that ended in the building's burning.
The Sea Pines Resort Recreation Department offers guided tours of the ruins. Reservations required by phone.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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