St. Augustine is the original home of tabby in America. The Spanish arrived in St. Augustine in 1565, and the first documented reference to tabby occurred in 1580. In fact, the word “tabby” may derive from the Spanish word tapia, meaning “mud wall.” Also in 1580, the Spanish discovered coquina, a natural shellstone that could be quarried, so the oldest surviving buildings of Spanish rule are a combination of coquina and tabby. The British takeover of the city in 1764 ushered in the destruction of most tabby buildings, so there are few remnants today. (For more information on the history of St. Augustine tabby, see Janet H. Gritzner’s article, “Distributions of Tabby in the Southern United States,” in The Conservation and Preservation of Tabby.) 

The sites listed below illustrate the history of tabby and the Spanish colony in St. Augustine:

Mission de Nombre de Dios

It is here on Mission Grounds in 1565 that Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed and began the Spanish colony in Florida. A marker in the historic park indicates the location of the oldest known tabby and coquina—the foundations of a church and friary dating from 1677. Unfortunately, archaeologists have covered the ruins, so only the marker is visible. 

GPS: N 29°54.302 and W 81°19.007 (parking lot) 

Address: 27 Ocean Avenue, St. Augustine, FL  32084

Accessibility: The mission is open to the public and consists of a museum, church, chapel, and historic park (although the archaeological excavation is covered and unavailable for public viewing). For more information, visit the website of the Mission de Nombre de Dios.

Castillo de San Marcos

Constructed 1672-1695, the massive Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest standing fort in the United States. It was built primarily with coquina, but some tabby was used. (However, it seems to me that in St. Augustine the floors identified as tabby have much smaller and fewer shells than tabby elsewhere.)

Location 

GPS: N 29°53.798 and W 81°18.676

Address:  1 S. Castillo Drive, St. Augustine, FL 32084

Accessibility: There is a parking lot in front of the fort and at the nearby Visitor Center. Open every day, except Christmas, from 8:45am-4:45pm. Admission is $7 for those over the age of 15. For more information see the website for the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.

St. George Street Tabby Walls

St. George Street is a popular pedestrian walkway with stores and restaurants in the heart of the historic district. Most of the tabby walls along historic St. George Street are stuccoed, but exposed tabby can be seen in a couple of spots. 

Location 

One wall is by the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse in the U.S. at 14 St. George Street and Tolomato Lane
(GPS Coordinates N 29°53.847 and W 81°18.818).

Another is by Mill Top Tavern at 19 St. George Street
(GPS Coordinates N29°52.824, W81°18.809). 

Accessibility 

Park at the nearby Visitor Center, which is also close to the Castillo San Marcos. The Visitor Center is located off I-95 at 10 W. Castillo Dr, St Augustine, FL 32084. For more information, see http://www.staugustinegovernment.com/sites/vicparking/index.cfm. 

Description

Hilton Head Island's Stoney-Baynard Ruins consist of the remnant of the tabby plantation house, the tabby foundations of two slave cabins, and the tabby chimney of the kitchen. 

History

Captain John "Saucy Jack" Stoney began construction of his house in 1793, as part of the Braddock Point Plantation that produced sea island cotton. William Edings Baynard purchased it in 1845, but the family fled when Union soldiers arrived in 1861. It burned in 1867.

Location 

GPS: N 32°07.737 and  W 80°48.840

Address: 87 Plantation Dr., Hilton Head Island, SC 29928

Accessibility: The ruins are located in Baynard Park in Hilton Head's Sea Pines Plantation, which costs $6 to enter. The park sits in a subdivision on Plantation Drive past Baynard Cove Road and Marsh Drive. There is a small parking lot, facing a hill that leads to the ruins.

For more information, go to http://www.exploreseapines.com/historical-sites.asp.

Description

A fence encloses three standing tabby chimneys of slave cabins, with additional tabby rubble on the ground. In the woods next to the fence is another tabby remnant. According to the Heritage Library Foundation, “The tabby used is a distinct mix containing whole clam shell in addition to the normal oyster shell aggregate.   Broken brick, glass and ceramics are also spotted in the tabby.” 

History

Established in 1762, Fish Haul Plantation gets it name from the adjoining Fish Haul Creek. It also goes by the name Drayton Plantation from owner Thomas Fenwick Drayton, a Confederate general who used his family home as his headquarters in 1861. Union forces captured the property, giving a portion of it to former slaves. The freed slaves who received some of the property formed Mitchelville, the nation’s first freedmen’s village.

Location

GPS:  N 32°18.291and W 80°38.555

Address: 70 Baygall Rd., Hilton Head Island, SC 29928

Accessibility: The ruins are enclosed in a fence next to Barker Field; another tabby remnant
is situated in adjacent woods.

For more information see the Heritage Library Foundation.

Description

Located in Jekyll Island's Historic District, Hollybourne Cottage is an example of Revival Tabby. Revival Tabby is a late nineteenth-century style of imitation tabby using Portland cement.

History

The du Bignon family, who owned Jekyll Island and operated a slave plantation, sold the island after the Civil War to the Jekyll Island Club. Formed in 1886, the club included the world's wealthiest elite--J. P. Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, the Rockefellers, etc. Club members vacationed on Jekyll during the winter, and some built vacation homes. Charles Stewart Maurice built Hollybourne Cottage in 1890. The Great Depression and World War II ended the exclusive Jekyll Island Club, and the State of Georgia purchased the island in 1947. Hollybourne Cottage is the last of Jekyll's historic homes to be restored.

Location

GPS: N 31°03.733 and W 81°25.383

Address: 379 Riverview Drive, Jekyll Island GA 31527, in the Historic District..

Accessibility: There is a toll (currently $6) to cross the Musgrove Downing Causeway to enter the island, but it is free to park and to walk through the Historic District. Be sure to head north, not south, on Riverview Drive. Riverview Drive turns into a pedestrian walkway in the Historic District at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. There is a parking lot across from the hotel at the marina. Hollybourne is on the pedestrian walkway. Hollybourne's exterior can be viewed, but the interior is closed because of ongoing renovations.

For more information, see the website of the Jekyll Island Authority, which operates the island for the State of Georgia.

Description 

Jekyll Island's Horton House Historic Site contains the State of Georgia's oldest tabby ruins and consists of three tabby structures:

1. The Horton House is the remnant of a two-story tabby home covered by stucco with two rooms on the remaining ground floor, one of which has a fireplace. 

2. The du Bignon family cemetery is directly across the street from the Horton House. A covered tabby wall with a wrought iron gate encloses the graves of Amelia du Bignon, Joseph du Bignon, Marie Felicite Riffault, Hector de Liyannis, and George Harvey. 

3. A tabby warehouse, well, and brewery ruins lie adjacent to the cemetery. The tabby is exposed (not covered with stucco).

History

The Horton House was constructed by Major William Horton, who served with Georgia founder James Oglethorpe. Horton was granted Jekyll Island in 1735 and began constructing the home after his arrival in 1736. After the Spanish burned his house, he rebuilt it in 1743. Horton also began construction of the warehouse and brewery. Horton died in 1748, and in the 1790s the Frenchman Poulain du Bignon purchased Jekyll and restored the house for his family. The du Bignons owned the island until 1886, at which point they sold it to the millionaires of the Jekyll Island Club, and the Horton site was abandoned.

Location

GPS: N 31°06.129 and W 81°24.87

Address: Riverview Drive, Jekyll Island GA 31527, on the north side of the island facing the marsh. There is no street number assigned to the Horton site. Drive north past the Historic District, airport, churches, and houses to the sign for the Horton House Historic Site.

Accessibility: There is a toll (currently $6) to cross the Musgrove Downing Causeway to enter the island, but the ruins are free and there is a parking lot at the site.

For more information, see the website of the Jekyll Island Authority, which operates the island for the State of Georgia.