Qualla: Beaufort Historic Site

Beaufort Historic Site: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Forty percent of Beaufort sympathized with the Union. The other sixty percent did not, and the Josiah Bell House on Turner Street is where that split crystallizes: Josiah Fisher Bell himself spied for the Confederacy in a town where nearly half his neighbors hoped the South would lose. The Beaufort Historic Site preserves his home along with eight other buildings that tell the coastal Carolina story across two centuries, and the divided loyalties of 1862 are written into the floorboards.

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Beaufort Historic Site: Nine Buildings, Two Acres

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The complex sits in the middle of Beaufort's historic district, a two-acre cluster maintained by the Beaufort Historical Association. The oldest building is the Russell House, built around 1732, which now houses the Mattie King Davis Art Gallery. Leffers Cottage from around 1778 ...

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Beaufort Historic Site: The Jail That Wouldn't Close

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Old Jail, built about 1829, remained in use until 1954, which is to say it housed prisoners through the Civil War, two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the early years of the civil rights movement. Most American jails of that vintage were torn down or replaced by mid-twe...

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Beaufort Historic Site: A Cemetery Both Sides Blessed

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Adjacent to the site, the Beaufort Historical Association also operates the Old Burying Ground, where the divided town buried its dead in the same earth. The cemetery was among the few in the country consecrated by both Union and Confederate clergy, an unusual gesture in a place ...

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Beaufort Historic Site: Walking the Site

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tours move building by building, costumed interpreters explaining what daily life looked like in the apothecary, the courthouse, the jail, the houses where Beaufort's merchants and farmers raised their families. The site sits a few blocks from the working waterfront, where shrimp...

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