Hilton Head Real Estate Blog

Auldbrass is a unique home in Beaufort county designed by well-known architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  It offers an interesting history, with the current owner being film producer Joel Silver.  Auldbrass was only fully completed when Silver became the owner in 1987, fulfilling Wright’s original design. The home was originally owned by C. Leigh Stevens, who wished the buildings to serve as a modern self-sufficient retreat for farming, hunting and entertaining.  The financial effects of World War II and Stevens’ multiple changes and revisions stalled work on the property for many years, never to reach completion in Stevens’ lifetime.  The timeline of the property after Stevens’ death included the use of the property as a hunting Club and ownership by a few lumber companies.

Beaufort County Open Land Trust now manages the property and offers rare tours (a requirement by Silver when he purchased the property) of the Auldbrass property with this past weekend being the most recent.   As with most of the tours, this past tour sold out well in advance being that Auldbrass is one of the most interesting homes in Beaufort County, even at Wright’s standards. 

Many feel the Auldbrass property was the influence for the style of the first homes built in Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island.  Along with the California Modern and Japanese architectural styles; Auldbrass offered a few of the key design elements which evolved in to the Sea Pines or Hilton Head style. 

A few of the most predominate features of the Sea Pines style influenced by Auldbrass are:

• large overhangs 
• screen porches
• low roof slopes
• earth tone colors
• landscape with native plants rather than formal southern plantings

The desired effect is to blend a modern style house into nature rather than to stand out, much of what Frank Lloyd Wright was known.  With the more recent architectural movement towards neotraditional and classic southern home styles, it is interesting to point out that there is a creative blend of architectural styles in Beaufort County.  It is this ever evolving blend of home styles which will, in part, continue to stimulate interest in the Hilton Head and Beaufort County area, known as the Treasured Coast. 

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Posted by Stacey Macioszek in Real Estate |