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Posted on Sat, Mar. 20, 2004
Progress vs. preservation on Morris Island
DAN HUNTLEY
Staff Writer
CHARLESTON - History on this peninsula is as thick as the pluff mud in Charleston Harbor. And developer Harry Huffman realizes his plan to build luxury homes on a barrier island where the first shots of the Civil War were fired is going to be a battle. When told last week that the group opposed to building on Morris Island numbered about 100, Huffman feigned surprise.
"I thought it would be more like a thousand. Heck, I could buy them lunch and we could talk this out," said the businessman with an office on Queen Street, where horses' hooves clack along the cobblestones.
"Listen, I understand the historical significance of Morris Island, and I expected opposition to my vision out there. But I'm also a talker. ... Compromise is the American way and I'm good at it."
Huffman said his plans to build on 20 multimillion-dollar sites would involve only about 125 acres of the 840-acre island, which is a cannon shot (6,000 feet) southeast of Fort Sumter.
"This is privately owned land on which homes can be built," he said. "And I plan on building some fine houses out there in a historically sensitive style."
The tension between progress and preservation is nothing new in the booming New South. But what sets this spat apart is that it's taking place on a spit of land that is both a pristine barrier island and a bona fide national landmark. It features panoramic views of emerald green tidal creeks, the spires of Charleston's churches, and the chest-jarring Atlantic surf. It also was the launch pad of the Civil War and setting for the heroic charge of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry, which lost 272 soldiers.
In addition to the expected opponents to such a development -- historians and environmentalists -- Huffman also will face a coalition that includes African American Civil War re-enactors and suit-and-tie-wearing surfers.
The Morris Island Coalition's goal is to block the zoning change Huffman needs to build his 20 luxury homes, and to find millions to buy the island and preserve it in its natural state.
Part of the group's rallying cry is "No septic tanks on the graves of heroes."
When he walks the beach at Morris, Huffman sees one of the Lowcountry's last premier tracts of million-dollar lots. They would sit at the mouth of one of North America's oldest city harbors where proud Charlestonians say the Ashley and Cooper rivers merge to form the Atlantic Ocean.
Huffman says the section of the island closest to Sumter, known as Cummings Point, is where the homes would be built on lots costing from $2 million to $6 million. Homes would run another $1.5 million. They'd be built on pilings 13.5 feet above high tide to keep them safe from storm surges that roll in during hurricanes. Development would take place on about half of the 125 acres Huffman has under option.
Most of the island would be left as is, and public access would remain to the beach and planned battlefield memorials.
But when Blake Hallman walks the same island, he sees a battlefield no different from Gettysburg or Manassas. Would you build homes on those national monuments, he asks?
"I maintain there is no such thing as `historically sensitive' construction when it comes to this hallowed ground," said Hallman, the coalition spokesman who has visited the island more than 150 times -- once to get engaged. "To build there is nothing less than the desecration of a battlefield where brave men -- North and South, black and white -- died."
Morris Island was the site of the July 18, 1863, battle featured in the 1989 Denzel Washington film "Glory." Historians say the battle was significant because it demonstrated for the first time the prowess of all-black units fighting alongside their white colleagues.
Union forces lost more than 1,500 men in an unsuccessful attempt to take the position, which partially controlled the approach to Charleston harbor.
In 1900, Sgt. William H. Carney became the first black soldier to win the Medal of Honor for his role in the battle for Confederate-held Battery Wagner on Morris Island.
"It was a killing field," said Joe McGill, as he walked on Morris along a ragged sand dune topped by wind-tasseled sea oats, a stone's throw from where Huffman's houses would be built. "A lot of brave men died on this island and were buried here in mass graves."
McGill is a re-enactor with the 54th who also works with the Charleston office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
"The island needs to be preserved for its role in our nation's history on several fronts," McGill said as he looked through the harbor haze to Fort Sumter. "The proximity to present-day Fort Sumter. It's where the first shots of the war were fired. And for the actions of the soldiers who fought here."
Bubber Hutto, a surfer and former president of the Charleston Surfriders Foundation, said it's idiotic and "just plain wrong" for anyone to build on Morris.
"It's a moving island, subject to tremendous erosion and with the exposure to storms. There's a reason no man-made structures have survived," said Hutto, a structural engineer for the Navy and member of the Morris Island Coalition. "If you take away all the historical context, you still can't justify building a bunch of mansions on an island like this."
Due to the scouring wind and waves of tropical storms, no Civil War-era structures, and probably few human remains, still are on the ever-shifting island. Most of the remnants of Battery Wagner and even the Morris Island Lighthouse are now offshore.
Morris Island has recently been named "to the top" of the nation's 10 most endangered Civil War sites by the Washington-based Civil War Preservation Trust.
John Tucker, superintendent of the Fort Sumter National Monument, has met with the developer several times.
"Mr. Huffman is a nice gentleman, but we've agreed to disagree on this matter," Tucker said. "Morris is the only undeveloped island within sight of Fort Sumter. We're 180 degrees opposed to Huffman and his plans to build homes on Morris Island.... It would be the equivalent of building a mall beside the battlefield at Gettysburg."
Previous plans to both develop and preserve Morris Island have failed. As recently as 1999, U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., secured $4 million in federal money to buy and preserve the island, but the effort missed a deadline.
Huffman said the design of his homes would be in keeping with an 1863 sketch of buildings on the Cummings Point side of the island, using natural building materials such as low-slung tin roofs, stucco and tabby (mixed oyster shell) construction with native woods.
Huffman admits the island's topography and geographic location presents unique challenges. There is no bridge to Morris; construction crews and, later, homeowners would travel by private boat. He'd have to bring electricity by cable under the harbor at a cost of "a million bucks."
The island's highest ground is about 10 feet above sea level. There would be no cars or roads on the island. Residents would use golf carts to travel to and from a community dock. He says his customers will be the sort of people who probably would not commute into town or even live on the island year-round.
His next step is to get Charleston County to approve zoning for 20 houses on the island. Then he needs state approval to install septic tanks. Opponents plan to try to block him at both stages.
Huffman acknowledges that a home with this kind of view -- and heritage -- comes with a price.
"Morris Island would be for a very discerning-type market. But this is a one-of-a-kind setting. I wouldn't be jumping through all these hoops to build there if I didn't know there were eager buyers out there," Huffman said. "My God, it's one of the most gorgeous pieces of real estate in the Southeast. It's a 360-degree line of sight, and the worst view is of the ocean."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2004 Charlotte Observer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
Nora Kravec
Morris Island Coalition
Posted on Sat, Mar. 20, 2004
Progress vs. preservation on Morris Island
DAN HUNTLEY
Staff Writer
CHARLESTON - History on this peninsula is as thick as the pluff mud in Charleston Harbor. And developer Harry Huffman realizes his plan to build luxury homes on a barrier island where the first shots of the Civil War were fired is going to be a battle. When told last week that the group opposed to building on Morris Island numbered about 100, Huffman feigned surprise.
"I thought it would be more like a thousand. Heck, I could buy them lunch and we could talk this out," said the businessman with an office on Queen Street, where horses' hooves clack along the cobblestones.
"Listen, I understand the historical significance of Morris Island, and I expected opposition to my vision out there. But I'm also a talker. ... Compromise is the American way and I'm good at it."
Huffman said his plans to build on 20 multimillion-dollar sites would involve only about 125 acres of the 840-acre island, which is a cannon shot (6,000 feet) southeast of Fort Sumter.
"This is privately owned land on which homes can be built," he said. "And I plan on building some fine houses out there in a historically sensitive style."
The tension between progress and preservation is nothing new in the booming New South. But what sets this spat apart is that it's taking place on a spit of land that is both a pristine barrier island and a bona fide national landmark. It features panoramic views of emerald green tidal creeks, the spires of Charleston's churches, and the chest-jarring Atlantic surf. It also was the launch pad of the Civil War and setting for the heroic charge of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry, which lost 272 soldiers.
In addition to the expected opponents to such a development -- historians and environmentalists -- Huffman also will face a coalition that includes African American Civil War re-enactors and suit-and-tie-wearing surfers.
The Morris Island Coalition's goal is to block the zoning change Huffman needs to build his 20 luxury homes, and to find millions to buy the island and preserve it in its natural state.
Part of the group's rallying cry is "No septic tanks on the graves of heroes."
When he walks the beach at Morris, Huffman sees one of the Lowcountry's last premier tracts of million-dollar lots. They would sit at the mouth of one of North America's oldest city harbors where proud Charlestonians say the Ashley and Cooper rivers merge to form the Atlantic Ocean.
Huffman says the section of the island closest to Sumter, known as Cummings Point, is where the homes would be built on lots costing from $2 million to $6 million. Homes would run another $1.5 million. They'd be built on pilings 13.5 feet above high tide to keep them safe from storm surges that roll in during hurricanes. Development would take place on about half of the 125 acres Huffman has under option.
Most of the island would be left as is, and public access would remain to the beach and planned battlefield memorials.
But when Blake Hallman walks the same island, he sees a battlefield no different from Gettysburg or Manassas. Would you build homes on those national monuments, he asks?
"I maintain there is no such thing as `historically sensitive' construction when it comes to this hallowed ground," said Hallman, the coalition spokesman who has visited the island more than 150 times -- once to get engaged. "To build there is nothing less than the desecration of a battlefield where brave men -- North and South, black and white -- died."
Morris Island was the site of the July 18, 1863, battle featured in the 1989 Denzel Washington film "Glory." Historians say the battle was significant because it demonstrated for the first time the prowess of all-black units fighting alongside their white colleagues.
Union forces lost more than 1,500 men in an unsuccessful attempt to take the position, which partially controlled the approach to Charleston harbor.
In 1900, Sgt. William H. Carney became the first black soldier to win the Medal of Honor for his role in the battle for Confederate-held Battery Wagner on Morris Island.
"It was a killing field," said Joe McGill, as he walked on Morris along a ragged sand dune topped by wind-tasseled sea oats, a stone's throw from where Huffman's houses would be built. "A lot of brave men died on this island and were buried here in mass graves."
McGill is a re-enactor with the 54th who also works with the Charleston office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
"The island needs to be preserved for its role in our nation's history on several fronts," McGill said as he looked through the harbor haze to Fort Sumter. "The proximity to present-day Fort Sumter. It's where the first shots of the war were fired. And for the actions of the soldiers who fought here."
Bubber Hutto, a surfer and former president of the Charleston Surfriders Foundation, said it's idiotic and "just plain wrong" for anyone to build on Morris.
"It's a moving island, subject to tremendous erosion and with the exposure to storms. There's a reason no man-made structures have survived," said Hutto, a structural engineer for the Navy and member of the Morris Island Coalition. "If you take away all the historical context, you still can't justify building a bunch of mansions on an island like this."
Due to the scouring wind and waves of tropical storms, no Civil War-era structures, and probably few human remains, still are on the ever-shifting island. Most of the remnants of Battery Wagner and even the Morris Island Lighthouse are now offshore.
Morris Island has recently been named "to the top" of the nation's 10 most endangered Civil War sites by the Washington-based Civil War Preservation Trust.
John Tucker, superintendent of the Fort Sumter National Monument, has met with the developer several times.
"Mr. Huffman is a nice gentleman, but we've agreed to disagree on this matter," Tucker said. "Morris is the only undeveloped island within sight of Fort Sumter. We're 180 degrees opposed to Huffman and his plans to build homes on Morris Island.... It would be the equivalent of building a mall beside the battlefield at Gettysburg."
Previous plans to both develop and preserve Morris Island have failed. As recently as 1999, U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C., secured $4 million in federal money to buy and preserve the island, but the effort missed a deadline.
Huffman said the design of his homes would be in keeping with an 1863 sketch of buildings on the Cummings Point side of the island, using natural building materials such as low-slung tin roofs, stucco and tabby (mixed oyster shell) construction with native woods.
Huffman admits the island's topography and geographic location presents unique challenges. There is no bridge to Morris; construction crews and, later, homeowners would travel by private boat. He'd have to bring electricity by cable under the harbor at a cost of "a million bucks."
The island's highest ground is about 10 feet above sea level. There would be no cars or roads on the island. Residents would use golf carts to travel to and from a community dock. He says his customers will be the sort of people who probably would not commute into town or even live on the island year-round.
His next step is to get Charleston County to approve zoning for 20 houses on the island. Then he needs state approval to install septic tanks. Opponents plan to try to block him at both stages.
Huffman acknowledges that a home with this kind of view -- and heritage -- comes with a price.
"Morris Island would be for a very discerning-type market. But this is a one-of-a-kind setting. I wouldn't be jumping through all these hoops to build there if I didn't know there were eager buyers out there," Huffman said. "My God, it's one of the most gorgeous pieces of real estate in the Southeast. It's a 360-degree line of sight, and the worst view is of the ocean."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2004 Charlotte Observer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
Nora Kravec
Morris Island Coalition
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