A Gullah elder’s aunt lived in a semi-trailer on Hilton Head. A new mural honors her
The silver semi-trailer parked off Gumtree Road on Hilton Head Island has been an eyesore to some people over the years, said Louise Miller Cohen, director and founder of the island’s Gullah Museum.
That has never been the case for Cohen.
Her aunt, Rena Walters, lived in the trailer from 1965 to 1968 after her home burned in a fire, Cohen said. Walters didn’t have the money to build a new house, she said.
“I knew there was something that this trailer had to do,” she said. “It really had to tell the story of what life was like for the native islander, back in the day. Just how we had to live.”
Cohen now fully understands why she’s held onto the old thing for decades.
The museum and Great Dane, a trucking company that manufactured the trailer in the late 1940s, recently partnered to renovate its exterior and hung a mural of Walters on it Wednesday morning.
The mural, created by local artist Amiri Farris, depicts Walters standing astride the trailer.
The trailer has been parked at the Gullah Museum since 2008.
“Beautiful, beautiful,” said Cohen, looking at the mural as mosquitoes hummed about and morning sunlight filtered through the trees.
‘Preserve everything’
The trailer, which may have carried vegetables, was part of the first 18-wheeler to cross Hilton Head’s bridges in 1956, Cohen said. It was later left in Sea Pines, apparently after an accident.
Walters, her aunt, was living with Cohen’s grandmother in the early 1960s when their house burned down. They needed a place to stay, so one of Cohen’s relatives got the trailer and hauled it to her family’s property along Gumtree Road. The family turned it into a livable home, Cohen said.
Walters lived in the trailer for about three years until she died in the late 1960s, Cohen said. The trailer was then left in Cohen’s yard for roughly 40 years. She moved it to the museum in 2008.
God told her to keep it, she said.
“He told me to preserve everything I grew up with,” Cohen said.
She’s glad she did.
“Now, I’m just sharing it with everybody,” Cohen said. “In order to hold on to it, at one time I had to close up my ears and close my eyes to people. ‘That trailer, what’re you going to do with it?’ ... God actually told me, ‘They don’t have the vision.’”
While giving a tour at the museum in September 2019, Cohen met a man who knew employees at Great Dane, the trailer’s manufacturer. He got in touch with the company, which later offered to help fix it up.
What’s next?
The museum hopes to restore the inside of the trailer some day, too. There’s more work to be done, Cohen said.
Until then, though, people can look at the interior through a set of glass doors.
Inside, there’s a painting of the sea. Pots are stacked near a corner.
“This was no eyesore to me,” Cohen said. “This was home for somebody.”
Museum reopening
The museum, which closed due to COVID-19, is hosting a reopening party Saturday, July 3 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 12 Georgianna Drive off Gumtree Road.
There will be an old-fashioned fish fry, along with hamburgers and hot dogs, according to a flyer.
Parking for the event is available at the Boys & Girls Club at 151 Gumtree Road, the flyer says.
