Antebellum Beaufort, South Carolina, spreads out in front of you across the Beaufort Historic District. This is a place listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973. Here you can see an impressive collection of antebellum architecture that reflects Federal, neoclassical, and Greek Revival styles popular during the interwar period, and notice the widespread use of tabby in many structures.
Walk slowly and take in the variety: homes and gardens, commercial buildings, houses of worship and graveyards, with some sites open for public inspection. The community has long pursued rehabilitation and conservation, efforts that underline a commitment to maintaining the district's historic nature and have attracted acclaim and popularity from visitors and media outlets. The district's condition has been assessed several times since 1969, and in 1998 the National Park Service proposed listing the district as "threatened" because of gradual loss of historic integrity.
Partly in reaction, the district's significance was broadened to include a distinctive element of post-Civil War history. Picture the tabby walls, shaded gardens, and houses of worship carrying forward the 1998 threatened listing that renewed this district's commitment to preservation.