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DEL.ICIO.USIsland has been obscured by dream of Hilton Head
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hilton Head Island, S.C. — It began as an island, and the island is still here, but you wouldn’t believe all the other neighbors who have attached themselves. Like barnacles. Ten, 12, 15 miles off the actual island they include themselves under the Hilton Head canopy. It’s good for the image, and I don’t know that the island folk bear any resentment.
Welcome to the club. The more, the merrier. Join in and spread the word.
Hilton Head, the island itself, is shaped like an old tennis shoe with holes in it. Those would be harbors and sounds and creeks and inlets. Hardly a foot of acreage has not been put to use. It didn’t happen overnight, but once the developers and risk-takers began to take hold, Hilton Head Island burst into bloomtown. They came from all over and staked out their claim, sometimes quite adequately financed, and sometimes fly-by-nighters. Some thrived, some survived, some bit the dust and some spent time looking at life through bars.
When I first landed on Hilton Head, the William Hilton Inn had just been completed, the first luxury — shall we say — hostelry on the island. There was a small motel with 14 rooms up the beach, the Sea Crest. That was it. You should see the Sea Crest today, in fact, both of them. They are towers of condominiums by the sea. In the island’s developing struggles I was offered the chance to buy a beachfront lot for half price. That would have been $4,500. I said thanks, but I couldn’t take the risk. Today it would no less than three or four million bucks.
There was one golf course. Sea Pines they called it, I think. Today there are 14 or 15 and several more, if you include all those off the island that have adapted themselves to Hilton Head. The island has its own PGA Tour event, and the field, coming directly after the Masters, usually attracts marquee names. And so has the tournament itself, which has had a handful of titled sponsors itself, but one has stuck with it through the years — The Heritage. The course on which the tournament is played was designed by Jack Nicklaus, in company with Pete Dye. Ironically, Arnold Palmer won the first, but Nicklaus made up for the intrusion. He won three of the first five.
In another way Hilton Head has distinguished itself, I’m told. It gave birth to the nation’s first roundabout; you know, one of those British circular intersections with no traffic light, in which it’s every driver for theirself, as Dizzy Dean would have said it. Even when the William Hilton Inn and Sea Crest were the only public housing on the island, it was laid out at what is known as Coligny Circle, and it’s still in place today, but not long for this world, rumor has it.
I have no idea what the year-round population of the island is, but one resident has estimated it at 20,000. Once there was a wildlife preserve in the middle of the island, a symbol of the motivation of the visionary whose idea this whole project was. There always is one, there has to be. One person who has dreams that only he can dream, and who fights off those who scoff, and who eventually puts it all together. That was Charles Fraser, a general’s son, physically unimposing but mentally at the top of the heap. He created Sea Pines, and other developers came billowing in behind him like the “Sooners Rush.”
Several made it, some didn’t, but in the real estate melee that resulted, Hilton Head became one of the South’s most appealing destinations. Among those who eventually tripped and fell on their own swords was Charles Fraser himself, but his dream lives on in his absence. He died in a boating accident a few years ago, just in his mid-years.
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Comments
By Scott
July 29, 2008 8:29 PM | Link to this
“Hardly a foot of acreage has not been put to use.”
Hmm….what, did you just drive through one day recently and conclude this? The Town of Hilton Head has purchased and set aside or turned into parks over 1,200 acres on Hilton Head, never to be developed on.
“I have no idea what the year-round population of the island is, but one resident has estimated it at 20,000.”
It’s 35,000.
“Once there was a wildlife preserve in the middle of the island, a symbol of the motivation of the visionary whose idea this whole project was.”
There will always be a 600 acre wildlife preserve in Sea Pines. You can ride horses through it, if you like.
By Check this out
July 30, 2008 3:23 AM | Link to this
Braves minor league news
By Oneiron
July 30, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this
BTW - Roundabouts had been in use in New England for many, many years before Hilton Head. I, too, remember the “pristine” HHI. Back in the 70’s with the two-lane highway and drawbridge onto the island, I remember playing golf on Port Royal Plantation on a Sat. afternoon in mid-July by myself and not seeing another human for 17 holes. What a delight.
By William
July 30, 2008 9:53 AM | Link to this
I gave up on Hilton Head a long time ago - the traffic and crowds have ruined it - you might as well be in down town Myrtle Beach! With a little time you can write the same thing for St. Simons! The only time I consider going is during the winter.
By Henry
July 30, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this
Being from Savannah we made Hilton Head a second home. Before there was a bridge we used the Ferry. In our teenage years we would take our dates over to the beach and build bond fires and have a great time.
I can remember playing Palmetto Dunes when the Pro Shop was a trailer and you could play all day with a cart for $15.00. King Carter was the Pro and he was from Augusta. Great guy.
I have many fond memories of Hilton Head and do not forget you could drink beer at 18 .
By sonnyliv
July 30, 2008 12:19 PM | Link to this
if you want a deal on lots on st. simons —dont delay—its now or regret it later again.
By Matt
July 30, 2008 3:38 PM | Link to this
My wife and I live in Atlanta, but keep out sailboat at Windmill Harbour. We have seen the island change for the worse, but when we go, we stop at Windmill and never have to fight traffic except on 278. We spent much time there in the 60’s and it was heaven…unlike today.
By UGA'91
July 30, 2008 6:04 PM | Link to this
The old coot is wrong alot isn’t he?
By Harvey
July 30, 2008 11:20 PM | Link to this
I started going to HHI in the early 70’s as a member of an advertising team from Ogilvy & Mather and had the pleasure of meeting Charles Frazier. It eventually became the favorite vacation destination for family and friends. I agree that it has become overcommercialized and overcrowded, but still retains its overall beauty.
By FL Dawg
July 31, 2008 8:11 AM | Link to this
Yep, the old days were great.
But, once they four laned Hwy 278 and gave an 800 # to the yankees, it went down hill.
I can see them now in their long black nylon socks and sandals driving in from Ohio in their van.
By Jim W Harrison
July 31, 2008 9:31 AM | Link to this
Union Bag Camp Paper Co., ran the island before the bridge. My uncle, Etheridge Blount, of Garden City, SC, was in charge. He had an anfib half-track to run the hunting club. My college room mate was president of Sea Pines. My former wife has the villa on the beach. My sons,daughter and 6 grand daughters catch all the fish and send pictures.
By Ben
July 31, 2008 10:24 AM | Link to this
What it the world is the point of this article?? Why is it even under “Sports”? Congrats. You stated some facts and history about a island off the Georgia coast that may or may not be accurate.
By Jean
July 31, 2008 10:35 AM | Link to this
Most islanders do resent all the off island properties using HIlton Head in their name. I vacationed here as a child and moved here 20 years ago as a young parent. The traffic on 278 isnothing compared to traffic back home in NY. It certainly has changed and is far from perfect but driving over the bridge after a trip out of town is one of my most enjoyable moments.
By Sarah McClain
August 1, 2008 10:09 PM | Link to this
I enjoyed your article about Hilton Head. My sister and her husband lived there in the late 59’s and early 60’s. She worked for Charles Fraser and he worked on the first golf course driving a caterpillar. It was such a beautiful place. Thanks for all the good articles down through the years. I have been an AJC reader since 1961. God bless.
By Scott
August 4, 2008 6:22 PM | Link to this
OK, so there’s pining for the past, and then there’s unrealistic expectations folks.
It would be wise to not confuse Bluffton with Hilton Head Island. I’ve known Hilton Head for over 25 years, and the island frankly hasn’t changed all that much. It is still a model for restrained development, nature preservation, and harmony with the surroundings.
Across the bridge into Bluffton? Mad house, yes. But a lot of that melts away once you’re on the bridge island bound, baby:
“A prototype for centrally planned resort communities around the world, from nearby Kiawah Island in South Carolina to Amelia Island in Florida, Hilton Head remains a haven for nature lovers, dominated by luscious moss-draped oaks and leafy green palmettos — even as it has become a mega-destination that draws 2.5 million visitors a year.
The 12-mile-long, shoe-shaped island, 45 miles north of Savannah, Ga., is home to more than a dozen hotels and about 6,000 rentable homes and condos, spread among 10 centrally planned,gated “plantations” — each with its own golf courses, tennis complexes, beach areas and biking trails.
“Sure, we have a Wal-Mart now. But you go there and you park under a 300-year-old oak tree. That’s pretty cool,” says New York transplant Scott Henry, 38, who arrived eight years ago and runs a dolphin-watching boat company called Lowcountry Nature Tours.
During a ride around the intra-coastal waterways between Hilton Head and the South Carolina mainland in one of his 20-foot deck boats, Henry proudly points out miles of pristine, oyster-covered tidal marshes filled with egrets and herons, which look much as they did when English explorer William Hilton arrived in 1663.
Unlike at so many other island getaways along the coast, both the bayfront and oceanfront homes of Hilton Head — many of them large, multimillion-dollar mansions — are mostly hidden from the water behind a dense forest of trees.
“Hilton Head has done a great job in maintaining the natural beauty and health of the ecosystem,” says Henry, noting that the surrounding waters are vibrant enough to support more than 200 bottlenose dolphins. As if on cue, moments later a dolphin swims within inches of the boat, fearing nothing as it eyes the occupants.
“Each of these dolphins eats around 25 to 30 pounds of fish a day,” says Henry. “That says a lot about the quality of the water and the environment.”
In addition to dolphins, Hilton Head is home to such East Coast rarities as loggerhead sea turtles, which emerge from the Atlantic each summer to nest in the grassy dunes along Hilton Head’s wide, 12-mile-long beach. The island also is famous for its sand dollars and starfish, which gleeful children pull out of the surf by the dozens (though the rules say they must throw them back). And it’s teeming with other wildlife, from crabs along the beach to green tree frogs that pierce the hot summer night with mating calls.” USA Today, “Hilton Head, Way Ahead Of It’s Time” article.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2006-08-31-hilton-head_x.htm
Dig it.
By Susan
August 24, 2008 5:12 PM | Link to this
My family once owned Jack Rowe Island, across from Daufuskie, and visible from the top of the Harbour Town lighthouse. My husband and I have revisited the island a couple of times, although the huge plantation house, electrical workshop, barn, and bait house have been destroyed. We live in Greenville County now, and miss the grande life on the coast. We vacationed at Harbour Town last week, and our men played the PGA course. The wives couldn’t muster up the courage to rent a boat and explore the island without the fellas. Another time, perhaps! Do any of the locals have any information about how the plantation house and buildings were lost? Henry Ford Sr used to be a regular guest of the original developers, and he donated a large pendulum bell to the island owners.
By Tim
January 23, 2009 7:38 AM | Link to this
Hilton Head and the general area has been ruined thanks to the yankee transplant.. I try to avoid that dump at all cost..