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Hilton Head, SC

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Preservation Landscape Architecture: WLA Studio
Exhibit Design: Proun Design, LLC
Master Plan Budget: $225k

In 1861, the Union navy defeated the Confederate fort on Hilton Head Island. The white plantation owners fled, leaving their resident enslaved African Americans to fend for themselves. General Mitchel, a staunch abolitionist, gave the newly liberated population land on the island and materials to build their own town. In 1862, Mitchelville became the first self-governed freedman’s town in the country.

Proun Design, WLA Studios, and International Coalition of Sites of Conscience have developed a master plan for the interpretation of this dramatic episode in American history. Phase 1 of the plan includes framed structures that represent the types of houses and churches the community built. A reproduction of a core sample interprets archaeology done on the site. Phase 2 is to include the construction of an archaeology lab and visitor center.

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