Retreat Plantation, 130 Pinckney Retreat Road, Beaufort, Beaufort County, SC

Significance: The tallest double-pile tabby structure now extant, this building illustrates (despite extensive alteration) large scale, multi-story tabby construction at its most developed stage.

Construction of the house, sometime before the American Revolution, is traditionally attributed to French immigrant Jean de la Gaye. De la Gaye conducted business in Beaufort for a time, but returned to France in 1769. Occupied for most of the nineteenth century, the house was abandoned in 1912. By 1939 the roof had collapsed; interior materials such as the floorboards and fireplaces were looted. The following year new owners began to renovate and restore the structure; in 1950 a kitchen wing was added. The property was sold in 2003 to a developer.
Survey number: HABS SC-860
Building/structure dates: ca. 1940 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1950 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: before 1769 Initial Construction