One of Beaufort’s most notable homes is on the market and awaiting a buyer with particular taste. The ‘Prince of Tides’ house, the historic and iconic Lewis Reeve Sams mansion in downtown Beaufort’s Point Neighborhood, is awaiting its next owner.
The historic mansion at 601 Bay St. was featured in the 1991 movie “The Prince of Tides” based on the novel by Beaufort author Pat Conroy, and served as headquarters for Brigadier General Rufus Saxton, military governor of the Department of the South during the Civil War occupation of Beaufort by the Union Army, and as Hospital #14 for wounded Union officers.
The home was listed back in 2019 for $2.395 million, and late in 2023 for $3.2 million. After a reduction, it has a price tag of $2.95 million today.
The house is located in the historic Point neighborhood, overlooking the Beaufort River and the Woods Memorial Bridge and is everything you expect in a historic southern home.
The 7,616-square-foot home was built in 1852 by South Carolina planter Lewis Reeve Sams. The property was previously the Bay Street Inn and has recently been used as a private residence since 2006.
Throughout the years, the home has retained its plantation-style architecture, replete with characteristic Greek-Revival inspiration and a two-tiered porch lined with columns and prominent window shutters.
The south facing fluted columns of the double tiered piazzas are Ionic over Doric and like most of the materials of the home, were harvested from Dataw island by the original builder,Lewis Reeve Sams and brought to Beaufort by boat.
Six bedrooms, six full bathrooms, a library and formal dining room and parlor are among the home’s features, according to the real estate listing. The main level features a large veranda with captivating river views that opens to a grand entrance hall.
A marble staircase provides access to the elevated first floor. A gracious 35-foot foyer opens to two double parlors and a sweeping staircase to the top floor. The floors are original heart pine throughout. The large windows are adorned with acanthus leaf carvings, and most still have wavy glass of old. Eight fireplaces with original mantles, two of which are black marble imported from Italy, are within the house, most converted to gas. Twelve-foot ceilings with deep picture frame molding is found throughout the house.
A ceiling medallion is original to the house and showcases crops grown on the Dataw plantation of Lewis Reeve Sams.
Other rooms on this first floor are a library, family room, kitchen, butler’s pantry, and powder room.
On the second floor is a laundry room and three bedrooms, each with private baths, and a large master suite with a full bath and walk-in closet. The second-floor piazza offers a panoramic view ofthe Beaufort River and the bluffs of Factory Creek.
According to local Beaufort lore, the house was saved from burning in the Great Fire of 1907, which destroyed a large part of downtown, because of the efforts of the employees of the Waterhouse cotton gin who formed a bucket brigade to put out any flames.
Featured in the movie The Prince of Tides, it’s this historic house is a piece of Hollywood history in Beaufort, SC.
Filming of The Prince of Tides came along in 1991. The romantic drama received 7 Oscar nominations and was produced and directed by Barbra Streisand; and was based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Pat Conroy, who also co-write the screenplay. The movie starred Streisand and Nick Nolte, along with Blythe Danner, George Carlin and Streisand’s son, Jason Gould.
It was set in this beautiful historic house in the Old Point neighborhood in historic downtown Beaufort, right at the foot of the Woods Memorial Bridge. Although Fripp and St. Helena Islands are featured in the movie, and the beach house in the movie is located on Fripp Island where the beach scenes were also filmed, you’ll see the Beaufort River in the opening scene of the movie where the camera glides high in the air over the marsh.
