History
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This house, built in 1930, is typical in its materials and construction methods of houses built on the South Carolina Sea Islands from the end of the Civil War to the mid-20th century. It stands on land bought after 1865 by William Simmons, born about 1835 as a slave and later a U.S. Army soldier during the war who enlisted in the 21st U.S. Colored Infantry as Ira Sherman. William Simmons’s granddaughter Georgianna Jones Bryan built the house in 1930 for her brother, William “Duey” Simmons. The house reflects everyday life and the persistence of Gullah culture in an African-American farm community until after a bridge connected the island to the mainland in 1956, and it was renovated in 2010-11 as the Gullah Museum of Hilton Head Island.
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Hilton Head Island, South Carolina · United States
