Five architecturally innovative Beaufort area homes designed by three Beaufort firms will be open to the public to tour on Saturday, March 21st.
Historic Beaufort Foundation’s Spring Architects’ Tour is from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., rain or shine. Homes are located in the National Historic Landmark District, St. Helena Island and Dataw Island. This year’s tour features homes designed by three of Beaufort’s acclaimed architectural firms –Frederick + Frederick Architects, Hefner Residential Architecture, and Montgomery Architecture & Planning.
The featured homes on the tour include:
Historic Downtown Beaufort
Greene Street Cottage – Hefner Residential Architecture
The goal for this design was to find the correct scale of the neighborhood and meet the owner’s preferences which included three bedrooms with a living space that included living and dining room while working around the great 52-inch Live Oak on the corner. The architects accomplished this by creating a two-bedroom home with the third bedroom above the garage space. The main home’s living space was separated from the bedrooms and connected with a hall with utility room and half bath. The living space has a two-sided fireplace out to a large screen porch to be able to open up and expand the living area.
Dataw Island
An Art Lovers Retreat on Jenkins Creek – Montgomery Architecture & Planning
The Jenkins Creek home was built in 2024-2025 on Jenkins Creek along the western shore of Dataw Island. The concrete foundation and screen walls of this home were partly inspired by the history of the Sam’s Plantation tabby ruins. The owners have an extensive and diverse art collection which specifically informed the design for much of the interior.
A Scenic Deepwater Retreat – Frederick + Frederick Architects
This Deepwater Retreat was designed in 2005 for a single owner and thoughtfully reimagined for its current owners in 2023. This custom deepwater home celebrates Lowcountry living through spectacular water views and a seamless indoor-outdoor connection. Generous porches and decks frame ever-changing vistas of open water and marsh, inviting daily encounters with coastal wildlife. A serene koi pond at the entry court introduces the home through thoughtful melding of landscape and architecture, setting the tone for a residence that balances formal design with relaxed waterfront living. The great room, dining area, and main suite all orient toward the water, with soaring ceilings and abundant glazing that draw the surrounding landscape inside. The 2023 refresh includes beautifully crafted cabinetry and fully updated bathrooms and closets, adding contemporary refinement while preserving the home’s original architectural intent.
A Serene Retirement Retreat – Frederick + Frederick Architects
The Retirement Retreat owners bought this home in 2023, seven years after its original construction in 2017, envisioning it as a peaceful, practical, and welcoming retirement retreat. Despite its modest footprint, the house feels open and light-filled, with sweeping views that connect every room to the surrounding landscape. Recent updates introduced two additions, one linking the house and garage with a dedicated exercise room, and another expanding the living areas and creating a new sitting room in the primary suite. Residential Design Magazine recognized this home for its design, celebrating the balance of simplicity, elegance and livability.
Lands End, St. Helena Island
A Fish Camp at the End of the World – Montgomery Architecture & Planning
Constructed in 2025, you reach this home by driving through woods past blueberry fields and across a causeway with distant views to Gale Break and Bay Point Island. The home is the first building one sees along the northern shores of the entrance to Port Royal Sound as you approach from the Atlantic Ocean and takes full advantage of both the sunrises across St Philips Island and sunsets across Pinckney and Spring Islands. The sleeping quarters were developed as separate entities from the living areas of the home, and only after the design had been solidified did the architects learn the site had been occupied in the early 20th century by a similar ‘fish camp’ with a very similar layout.
HBF is a 501(c)3 nonprofit education foundation created to preserve, protect, and present sites and artifacts of historic, architectural, and cultural interest throughout Beaufort County, South Carolina. For more information on the entity’s mission and history, please visit www.historicbeaufort.org and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
