Watch as classic Hilton Head restaurant is demolished, rebuilt next to lighthouse
You can now keep an eye on the progress at Sea Pines’ Quarterdeck restaurant.
Sea Pines Resort has launched a livestream on Youtube to track the progress and rebuilding of the new Quarterdeck, located next to the Harbour Town Lighthouse on Hilton Head Island.
On Thursday, the livestream showed a newly cleared construction site.
The Quarterdeck restaurant will be rebuilt to reflect a new Harbour Town experience, according to an announcement from Sea Pines Resort in December.
The restaurant, which used to have a large patio for outdoor seating, will be rebuilt to offer panoramic views of the 18th green on the Harbour Town Golf Links course, the yacht basin and Calibogue Sound.
Quarterdeck’s redevelopment will also include the construction of a rooftop oyster bar with flexible glass walls to open to the outdoors.
The bar will open to a 270-degree view of Harbour Town.
A casual, walk-up market on the ground level will serve as a place to grab a quick bite to go or to stock up on local shrimp, seafood and ice cream for the day. It will open toward the entrance to the Harbour Town Pier, which was rebuilt after being destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
“We’re going to be reorienting how it sits on the site and focusing on those primary views of the marina, the 18th hole and the sunsets over Calibogue Sound,” Director of Resort Development Cliff McMackin said in December “That was a critical point in the design process.”
Construction is scheduled to be finished in spring 2022.
“This new restaurant will serve as the cornerstone of Harbour Town and is destined to become the most desirable dining venue on Hilton Head Island,” Steve Birdwell, president of The Sea Pines Resort, said in a news release.
Harbour Town history
When visitors think of Hilton Head, the first image that often comes to mind is the Harbour Town Lighthouse.
In the summer of 1950, Charles Fraser worked in his father’s island logging camp and fell in love with the island. He loved the area so much he convinced his father to develop Sea Pines, according to The Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce.
“He was inspired to create a low key, unpretentious, special community that was respectful of nature,” Jim Chaffin, one of Sea Pines’ first real estate agents, told the chamber. “At the time, only the beach property was considered valuable for developing but Charles wanted a community that was more than just a beach place. He wanted to add value to the entire area.”
Fraser wanted to create a gathering spot that would include boating.
“He really wanted a joyful, celebratory destination. When he first put out the rocking chairs around Harbour Town, people laughed and asked him what he was doing,” Chaffin said. “He would answer, ‘It’s a place for people just to sit.’ Even now you see people in the rocking chairs reading the paper and enjoying a sense of place.”
In Harbour Town, Fraser envisioned a landmark that would attract people not just to Sea Pines but to the Island.
Lighthouse keepers’ homes that were in present-day Leamington were moved to Harbour Town, and the 90-foot lighthouse was completed in 1970.
