Historic Bluffton house and museum set for sale to private buyer

A historic Bluffton house is set to be sold to a private owner after operating for years as a museum.

The Cole-Heyward House on Boundary Street is the headquarters of the Historic Bluffton Foundation. The foundation spent a decade renovating the house and opened it as a museum showcasing antebellum life in Bluffton. Now the foundation will sell the house.

Why sell it?

According to a press release from the foundation, the Heyward House is in a well-maintained condition. But the house’s financial and operational costs are significant. The foundation’s board of directors made the decision to sell based on these factors.

The foundation will place the proceeds from the sale into a restricted trust. It will use the funds to sustain operations, including preservation of historic Bluffton buildings and education for the public about them. The sale will allow the foundation to reallocate resources that would have gone into the house’s upkeep into, “protecting more sites, serving more people, and strengthening our advocacy efforts,” according to the press release.

What’s next for the Heyward House?

The Cole-Heyward House was built in 1841 by plantation owner John J. Cole and is one of eight remaining antebellum homes in Bluffton, according to the foundation’s website. The home was built using the labor of enslaved people, and the original slave cabin remains on the property. George Cuthbert Heyward, the grandson of a Declaration of Independence signer, lived in the home with his family after the Coles. The house survived a burning of the town by Union forces during the Civil War.

Now the house will be privately owned again. The buyer is committed to preserving the historical character of the house, according to the press release.

Tours and programs led by the foundation will continue during the house’s transition from the foundation to private ownership. The foundation owns one other house in Bluffton, the Colcock-Teel House. It also owns the Caldwell Archives, located inside Bluffton Town Hall.