Bluffton
South Carolina
Looking for a new home or
riverfront property in the Bluffton South Carolina
area?
 The
Town of Bluffton is located in Beaufort County,
the southernmost coastal county in South Carolina. It is
situated on a high bluff overlooking the May River, a
pristine waterway that has strongly contributed to the
Town's history and continued success. Bluffton is
located just 12 miles west of
Hilton Head Island, SC and approximately 20
miles northeast of Savannah, GA. It is also easily
accessible from Intrastate Highways 46, 170, & 278 and
Interstate 95.
Premiere Bluffton SC Real
Estate Agents
Bluffton SC recently expanded
its territory by 32,000 acres through annexation of
primarily four tracts of undeveloped land, becoming the
fifth largest town in South Carolina (by land area).
These recent annexations have created a challenge for
government officials and citizens to preserve the Town?s
rich historical heritage and character.
The Greenways and Leisure Trails Map on the following
page shows the most recent Bluffton Town Limits. Since
tracts of land are annexed individually, it sometimes
creates pockets of unincorporated land throughout a
particular area. Such is the case with the Bluffton.
However, the catch here is that Bluffton Township (i.e.
? Fire district) overlays one continuous area of land
combining property within the Town limits with the
unincorporated pockets of land. Therefore, those who are
not within in Town limits can still have a Bluffton
mailing address if you are in the Township.
Thus, the Town limits consist of the original one-square
mile (Old Town), four primary annexed tracts of land (Shults
Tract, Palmetto Bluff Tract, Buckwalter Tract, and Jones
Estate), and a number of auxiliary annexations (Bluffton
Village, Village at Verdier, Shultz-Goethe Road Area,
and Willow Run)
Bluffton SC History
During the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, the area comprising southern Beaufort County
was known as Granville County of St. Luke’s Parish. As
the Yemassee Indians had established ten towns with over
1,200 inhabitants in that area, it was considered
“Indian Lands.” In 1715, the Yemassee War broke out and
after several years of fighting, the Yemassee tribe
migrated to Florida, opening the “Indian Lands” to
European settlement. In 1718, the Lords Proprietors
carved the area into several new baronies, including the
Devil’s Elbow Barony that contained the future town of
Bluffton.
The Town of Bluffton was eventually built on two
adjoining parcels in the Devil’s Elbow Barony purchased
by Benjamin Walls and James Kirk. The first homes were
constructed during the early 1800s by area plantation
owners seeking the high ground and cool river breezes as
an escape from the unhealthy conditions present on
Lowcountry rice and cotton plantations. Easy access by
water provided more incentive for expansion and the many
tidal coves afforded excellent locations for residences.
The first streets were formally laid out during the
mid-1800s and the name of Bluffton decided upon during
the same period.
In 1852 the Town was officially incorporated by an act
of the South Carolina General Assembly and comprised
approximately one square mile. A steamboat landing was
constructed at the end of Calhoun Street at this time,
which allowed the Town to be a stopover for travelers
between Savannah and Beaufort or Charleston.
Within one year of the capture of Fort Sumter, Bluffton
became a safe haven for residents fleeing Union
occupation of the South Carolina barrier islands.
Bluffton was a headquarters for Confederate forces until
Union forces on Hilton Head Island ordered the Town’s
destruction in 1863. Approximately 60 structures were in
the Town before the attack, only the Town’s two churches
and fifteen residences remained standing after the
attack.
Rebuilding came slowly as few local landowners could
still afford the luxury of a summer home in Bluffton.
The Town did not experience a true rebuilding until the
1880s, when the Town emerged as a commercial center for
Beaufort County. The Town remained a commercial center
until the Coastal Highway (US 17) and the bridge at Port
Wentworth over the Savannah River were completed, making
riverboat trade and travel less attractive. The Great
Depression, beginning shortly thereafter, brought the
closure of the Town’s prosperity and commercial
importance. The popularity of the Town as a vacation
spot remained even after its loss of commercial stature.
The development of Hilton Head Island, nearby Sun City,
and related development have caused a resurgence of
commercial activity in the Town.
The Hilton Head Story
In the early 1950s, Joseph Fraser and Fred Hack saw the
potential of Hilton Head Island as a vast tree farm.
They purchased thousands of forested acres on the island
for timber. It was Joseph Fraser's son, Charles, who
developed Sea Pines and orchestrated the early growth of
the island into a resort community. In 1957, developer
Charles E. Fraser broke ground for a new resort in
Hilton Head Island?s longleaf pine forests. When Fraser
started planning Sea Pines Plantation, Hilton Head was
an isolated place and most of Beaufort County was
impoverished. But Sea Pines? extraordinary success
changed all of that. Within just a couple of
generations, Beaufort County was transformed from among
the poorest to one of the richest counties in the state.
Sea Pines Plantation was the first resort development on
the island. Soon, other developments, such as Hilton
Head Plantation, Palmetto Dunes Plantation, Shipyard
Plantation, and Port Royal Plantation, followed
imitating Sea Pines? architecture and landscape. In the
1970s, Hilton Head Island was incorporated as a town.
Shortly thereafter, a four-lane bridge was constructed
to replace the James Byrnes two-lane swing bridge
(1982). The completion of the Cross Island Parkway in
1998, which connects the island's north and south ends
via a six-mile stretch of road, is one of the most
recent stepping stones in Hilton Head's development. The
idea to connect the road dates back to the 1950s with
Fraser and his brother, Joe, who were early advocates.
The bridge spanning Broad Creek was named in Charles
Fraser's honor. Today, more than 30,000 people call
Hilton Head ?home,? and more than 2 million visitors
flock to the island each year. However, with development
came the problem of traffic congestion along Highway 278
(Hilton Head?s main thoroughfare) which remains a
problem even today.
By 1974, off-island development began with Moss Creek.
William A. Fischel’s concept of “incomplete assignment
of property rights” relates to the off-island
development pressure occurring in the Hilton
Head/Bluffton area (London 1999). In the case of Hilton
Head Island, active growth management (1980s) tried to
restrict further development in order to protect the
island’s amenities. Hilton Head limited development by
successfully restricting the number of units and number
of bedrooms one could build. Hence, the result of these
restrictions is off-island development. Once communities
place restrictions on development, the development
itself often spills over into surrounding communities
shifting growth inland (London 1999). In this case, the
“spillover development” from Hilton Head Island directly
affects Bluffton.
Recent Annexations
Once Hilton Head Island began to reach the “build out”
stage of development, Town of Bluffton officials began
to recognize the enormous amount of growth that would
soon face the Town. All of the land outside the original
“one square mile” of the Town was in the jurisdiction of
Beaufort County. Instead of ignoring the growth in the
area, the Town began to annex land in order to possess
some local control over future development.
In less than five years, Bluffton has grown from a
square-mile-town to controlling the future development
of more than 32,000 acres (approximately 50 square
miles), a majority of which is located five or more
miles from the heart of the town. In November 1998,
Bluffton annexed Palmetto Bluff (20,660 acres) and
Shults Tract (620 acres), in April 2000, the Buckwalter
tract (5,600 acres), and in June 2000, the Jones tract
(4,400 acres). These properties are shown in figure 3
that indicates how the geographical expanse of the town
has grown in the past two years. While today those
properties stand as large, undeveloped parcels, they
each are a planned unit development with homes,
businesses and parkland in their future.
Source
Bluffton SC |
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