Dauphin Island Diaries
A long-form history podcast focused on the people, places, and stories that shaped Dauphin Island and the Alabama Gulf Coast.
Dauphin Island Diaries
DID Bonus INTERVIEWSDAY Material (2): Interview with Ms. Anita Phillips
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this Interviewsday edition of Dauphin Island Diaries, I sit down with longtime Dauphin Island resident Anita Phillips to talk about life on the island, how it has changed over the years, and some of the people and places that have helped shape its unique character.
Anita is a familiar face to many visitors. She has spent years serving as a docent at the Dauphin Island Welcome Center, helping residents and tourists alike learn more about the island's history, culture, and attractions. She is also the widow of the late architect and artist Gene Phillips, whose colorful condominium designs along LeMoyne Drive have become one of the island's most recognizable landmarks.
In this conversation, Anita shares memories of:
• First date on Dauphin Island
• The changes she has witnessed on the island over the decades
• Tourism and community life on Dauphin Island
• The work of the Dauphin Island Welcome Center
• Local traditions and island culture
• Her husband Bill Phillips and the story behind the colorful "birdhouse" condominiums on LeMoyne Drive
• Some of the people who have helped shape modern Dauphin Island
Like many of our Interviewsday conversations, this episode offers a personal perspective that complements the historical stories we tell on Dauphin Island Diaries. History is ultimately about people, and few people know the island and its community better than Anita Phillips.
🎙️ Credits
Hosted by Big John Summers
Produced by Summers Media Enterprises
Foley/Sound effects recorded by Big John Summers
📣 Follow & Support
Follow Dauphin Island Diaries on Facebook, Instagram, and X for additional content, including on-location videos, historical interpretation, and stories from across the Alabama Gulf Coast.
🔗 Links
🧢 Merch & Apparel:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/merch
📘 Follow on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DauphinIslandDiaries/
📘 Check out The Tennessee History Nerd:
https://www.summersmediaenterprises.com/podcasts/tthn
Explore the Dauphin Island Diaries Catalog for more stories waiting to be heard!
Do you enjoy how we tell stories on Dauphin Island Diaries? Check out our sister podcast The Tennessee History Nerd for similarly-told stories about the history of the Volunteer State!
If you love the stories you hear on Dauphin Island Diaries, and would like to see content from the places behind the stories, then check out our Facebook page...and click subscribe for access to exclusive subscriber-only video content. It's only 99 cents per month!
Show your love for Dauphin Island and the Dauphin Island Podcast with official Dauphin Island Diaries merchandise! Click the link in the episode notes to visit the merchandise page!
If you enjoyed today's story, don't keep it to yourself...share it with someone else you know who loves Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast! And drop us a line and let us know what you think! Click the Send Fan Mail Link in the episode description to share your thoughts with us!
If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with someone who loves history, and leave a review—it helps more folks discover the stories of Dauphin Island, Mobile Bay, and the Gulf Coast.
I'm interviewing Ms. Anita Phillips. I'm in her home on Dauphin Island, actually looking out on Lafeet Bay here. And we're going to talk about the work that she and her husband did restoring lighthouses. And the first one that that uh we'll talk about here is the one that you did at Hague Point. Correct. Got the model of it right here in front of us on the table.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00All right. Um in about 1985 or 6, we were approached by International Paper Company of South Carolina to travel to the Fusky Island, which is off from Hilton Head in South Carolina, to restore their lighthouse, uh, which was not lighted anymore, and do work for them with new construction and restoration.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And what was involved in all of that?
SPEAKER_00Okay, the first thing we did there was the restoration of the Hague Point Lighthouse, which is very unique lighthouse. It uh took us about a year and a half to restore it. It is in it has now been placed back on the active lighthouse list and is lighted all the time and now is used as a bed and breakfast for the development.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. And so it is actually lit. It is being used for navigation.
SPEAKER_00Oh yes, it is active for navigation.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And do they have like radio navigation there coming from that also, or is it just light?
SPEAKER_00I think it's just light. I'm not really I wasn't I don't know anything about the other part.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Okay. So tell me what was involved in doing all that because you were there for Well, to do a restoration is a real uh historic restoration is a very involved situation.
SPEAKER_00You have to go in and you have to do as built drawings of everything that is existing. You have to then you have to do all of the then you have to investigate all the materials that are used in the building, because if you're doing a real restoration, you have to go back to those materials. So it's it takes quite a while to do the as-built drawings. And then you proceed with if you're going back to make the building exactly like it was, which we did in that instance, or if you're gonna uh modify it at all, which gets to be a whole other thing. But this in this case we did just restore the lighthouse, and the rooms that are there now are the the same configuration of what was in the lighthouse. We modified the use and made it into the bed and breakfast, but the building is structurally like it looks exactly like it did as it was built to begin with, and from the outside you would think it just is the active lighthouse and and not you know wouldn't even pick up on the other use.
SPEAKER_02Okay, and so with regard to same materials, I would think that that would be as big, if not a bigger, challenge than the as as designed drawings that you do in the beginning because you're having to go back and find historic mis materials that may not be being manufactured anymore.
SPEAKER_00Well, if they're not then you have to have them manufactured. And again, you get into a lot more costs when you're doing that.
SPEAKER_02And and at least some of the things that I've seen from historic restoration in in areas that I've looked into sometimes it's a challenge even to find people who know the techniques to do that manufacturing anymore.
SPEAKER_00That's probably the biggest challenge of all. But there is a network for people who do true restoration projects and they know who to get in touch with and who to use.
SPEAKER_02And I see.
SPEAKER_00So I mean there are people you can you can get advice from.
SPEAKER_02And so then you said this Hague Point was the first, which implies that there also was a second.
SPEAKER_00Uh, we did not actually restore another lighthouse, but as I told you before, my husband had a thing about lighthouses everywhere we ever went on any trip. I have probably been up in more lighthouses in the United States than anybody I know. And I have walked up so many, they're not easy to walk up, most of them. But that was it. He loved lighthouses, so one of the prettiest ones that I've ever been in is in Maine. It's called Peggy's Cove Lighthouse. I don't know if you're familiar with that or not. It's beautiful, but that was Hatteras, you name it. Yeah, we we've been up in a lot of them.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And then some of the other things that you've been showing me here as we as I came in, you've got the the plans where you were looking at you know the entrance coming onto to Dauphin Island and some of the things there that were designed by by your husband. Were you guys consulted at all about Sand Island?
SPEAKER_00No, we did not do anything on Sand Island. There's nothing on Sand Island.
SPEAKER_02Well, I just wondered. Oh, you mean the lighthouse?
SPEAKER_00No, that study was ongoing for many, many years, even after it was everybody knew that it was not feasible to even think about doing another study, or it's beyond hope. It just the migr the you know, sand migrating like it does, and uh it's just uh a victim of where it is, where it was put.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And and of course, there's not really uh one of the things that I'd heard was finding a place on Dauphin Island to relocate it, but even that's not really feasible.
SPEAKER_00No, it couldn't it it can't be. It's not structurally sound.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00At least that's the information that we've all been given. And I'm sure that's correct because through the years, I mean, more than one study has been done. But uh it would just be a waste of money for for another one.
SPEAKER_02And um do you remember the numbers that you maybe heard around how much it would have cost if uh assuming that it was even no, but I have a friend on the island who is very into lighthouse, particularly that one, and when you come back to the welcome center, I will give him a call and let him come talk to you, okay? I just was curious I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I knew I'd heard millions, and and I mean obviously I don't have any, I really don't, because we were not involved in any of the details of that.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So what other types of restoration have you done?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh my husband restored uh 27 rooms in the west wing of the White House when we lived in Williamsburg, and he had gotten his experience in restoration working for Colonial Williamsburg for 10 years, and then we went into business for ourselves. And even after we did that, he worked part of the week for Colonial Williamsburg and part of the week for us. They did not want him to go on his own totally, so we always had a connection with them and did so much beautiful work there and lived in the historic area for six for six years. Our two children grew up in the historic area as their playground. That's and they were mad at us when we built a new house one mile from the center of the historic area. We lived in Nicholson's shop because we had moved them out of their playland.
SPEAKER_02And and so talk to me a little bit about I mean, you've you've shared with me some things here about some of the work that he did in the White House, things that are still visible.
SPEAKER_00Well, he res he uh redesigned 27 rooms in the west wing of the White House, which everybody I think knows is where all the offices are, and uh in the one of the rooms that the most visible of any is the cabinet room, and it is still uh almost exactly like it was when he restored it. And I have a a copy, I have the original rendering he did in watercolor hanging on my wall. And if you see the cabinet room today, you will recognize that almost everything is exactly like it. And I have the two prototype chairs for the cabinet room that were made in the cabinet shop at Colonial Williamsburg that they approved to make the others, and the cat the one the tallest back is the president's chair. I don't know if I think everybody notices that, but maybe not. But I have the original prototype the made by Kittinger. The Kittinger made the ones that are in the cab in there now, but uh the shop at Kelowna, their cabinet shop made the two prototypes, and I own those, and they right now are in storage, but usually are sitting in my house right where we are, but they just don't happen to be here right now.
SPEAKER_02I see.
SPEAKER_00And uh they I we just think that we would that we just cherish those. And uh Suzanne will, of course, they will go to her down the road and her kids.
SPEAKER_02Suzanne is uh Miss Anita's daughter.
SPEAKER_00And uh Suzanne lives with me here on the island and has for the last two years, and I love having her back at home. And uh she's the mom of my two wonderful, beautiful grandchildren. I'm sure everybody says that. But they're 21 and th and 26.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So there have been some other, I mean, you know, we're talking about this from a Dolphin Island standpoint, Dolphin Island Diaries is the is the podcast. Um there are some other significant structures on the island as well, things that people will know when you say, you know, this this particular building. If they've if they traveled, uh-huh, that it'll be recognizable to them. Would you like to talk about that?
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, when you come on the island, um, you pass the Pass Chateau condos. We did those, and then the little um six little very brilliantly painted houses that are tall and skinny, uh, that everybody calls the bird houses, but that was not the name of the development. Uh they are all but one is still owned by the original owners, and uh we just love them. Everybody they everybody knows exactly where they are, and they have a their own dock and lift behind each one, and they're only six because that was the only piece of uh property on Dauphin Island that was that could be zoned for that.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And then there's another place, I believe, that you mentioned out on West End.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yes, that is quite that's very prominent. The third back from the West End beach, there's a tall blue and white double the a mirror house. The back looks just like the front that we did, and that was that house was almost finished when my husband passed away. That and one in Sea Point on Barcelona were the last two that he did on the island.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And then he also did a good bit of of planning around the entrance to the island. As you come on the island, things that the way it looks.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh. The comprehensive plan that he did for uh the mayor to have some data to take to show to the Restore Act people when they were about to award the money uh from the from the Restore Act, which came about after the oil spill. And uh so we did for the town a comp a plan showing all of the property that the island owned in the area called Alo Bay, and we just put in uses that that could be put that met the code to go where they're shown on the plan. The plan is not a thing set in anything to be like it's gonna be, but it it was to give them an idea of what the island needed to do on the island on the properties that the town already owned.
SPEAKER_02Basically concept.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it was conceptual plan. And uh so the mayor did take it to the meeting and ended up getting quite a few quite an award from the Restore Act. So that's that they've started and finished two of the projects so far, but they are one is um uh a pier out into the water, and the other one is some uh boat slips, but those are the only two kind parts of it that have been done so far.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And so you you mentioned that you try you well, you you and and and Mr. Bill did this for 50 years.
SPEAKER_0050 years we worked together, yes.
SPEAKER_02But that's not where your history on the island started.
SPEAKER_00No, our history started because we on the island started when we came to the island on our first date to the then new Isle Dolphin Club, which was our country club, and it it still exists. It's uh in the process of uh it's been used as a uh restaurant recently, and uh it will be having a new restaurant going into it soon. It's where the golf course is.
SPEAKER_02Right. And it's at the time that you were here was brand new.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it was new when we went on our first date there in in 1958. Uh-huh. And that's also where you had your we had our after-rehearsal party there in 1959 when we got married.
SPEAKER_02So so you've had you've had ties to the island.
SPEAKER_00Always, even when we lived away from the island all those years. So we came back every year for uh rodeo week. Our families lived in Mobile, and so we and our kids would come and rent. And back then, they were little shacks on the West End that you rented. The little house we rented every year shook like crazy when the wind blew. Uh and nothing in it matched. It was hilarious. We just loved it. So we came and uh my husband and his best friend from Williamsburg, who is still my best friend there, and he uh Larry is his name, he owns the airport in Williamsburg and actually flies down and lands at our little air airport on the island to see me quite often. So we have a lot still have a lot of connections to Williamsburg and our friends in Virginia.
SPEAKER_02And and of course, you know, we were talking earlier about the the the Tidewater accent, you know, that you you it you come by it honestly by being in in Williamsburg, because that's certainly Tidewater, Virginia. So you traveled, you said you know, in the life of your dog that she was in all 50s.
SPEAKER_00She's been in all states. We for we try at least 50% of the time we were not on Dolphin Island. We were traveling, going to our projects. In a lot of areas of the United States, we did a lot of destination resort work, and so that we would be on the road for three or four weeks or more, and just that's just what we did.
SPEAKER_02And divided the work of the business. He took care of the architectural design.
SPEAKER_00He was the the designer and dreamer, and I ran the business end of the business. He wanted nothing to do with that at all. I don't think he ever so like I said, I don't think he ever signed a check.
SPEAKER_02Okay. It worked for us. And then, you know, you've got lying here on the table a couple of catalogs of designs of his from Southern Living.
SPEAKER_00He actually helped Southern Living develop their plans program, yes. Started first plan he had in Southern Living was 19 I'm thinking back, 67, I believe, was the year the magazine started. It was it's an offshoot of Progressive Farmer. It's Southern Progress Corporation out of Birmingham, but it has been bought out as have almost every other magazine in the United States now, is owned by Meredith Corporation. And everybody knows there aren't that many magazines done anymore in the United States. But that's how we we we lived in Williamsburg when all that started. In fact, our daughter, my daughter Suzanne, who we talked about earlier, who's the chef at the carriage and the general manager there, was two years old, and her picture is in one of the photographs of the first things that was published in Southern Living of that he had done for somebody.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's neat. So the the thing that that I I find interesting is that those designs are still being they are still being sold by Southern Living, yes.
SPEAKER_00And and and and and he designed, you were showing me cabins and cottages and oh yeah, we have cottage collections, we have cab two cabin collections, and then a lot of for about four or five years, almost all of the plans of the month that were pe featured in there were his plans.
SPEAKER_02That's that's very impressive.
SPEAKER_00He did two idea houses through the years for them. And uh so there we they were just a wonderful company to work with. We just loved our relationship, working and friend relationship that we had with them for so many years.
SPEAKER_02So this is this has all been really, really interesting things. And and the and the the neat thing from my perspective, and a lot of it's come in that welcome center, but it's not just the welcome center, it's it's pretty much anywhere you go on the island. You never know who you're going to.
SPEAKER_00I mean, you don't know who you're talking to, regular people, and then you find out something like Especially when you realize there are only fourteen hundred of us who's seventeen hundred of us who live here full time. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But I mean, even then, I mean, w you know, the the people who don't live here full-time, you know, you've got people who are authors, you've got people who are, you know, well known in the in the Audubon community.
SPEAKER_00You've got people who I mean it's just like our friend who has the display in the museum that you're gonna meet.
SPEAKER_02Yes, uh-huh. Yes. Uh and and and I mean there's there's all of these all of these people, and you know, you just run into them organically. It's it's not it's not like you're having to to go out of your way and and have you know paying somebody to make an introduction for you or anything.
SPEAKER_00It's just a normal Oh, it's it's really great the interaction we have here with our visitors and our you know full-time people on the island.
SPEAKER_02And and you were sitting as I was sitting in the um working using the the internet there late in the afternoon. A couple came in riding bikes, they were in their their their gear.
SPEAKER_00Um you didn't have to worry about them getting hit by any no, no. They were dressed like the rainbow.
SPEAKER_02But they they looked like they were dressed for Mardi Gras biking.
SPEAKER_00And they were from they're from Iowa.
SPEAKER_02From Iowa. And and I was here in November, and a couple came in, I was camping in the campground down on the far end, the Dolphin Island campground next to the to the sea lab down there, tent camping, and while I was there, a couple came in on bicycles, set up their tents. They were biking all the way from somewhere in Florida, like Orlando or something like that, to Austin, Texas.
SPEAKER_00It's amazing.
SPEAKER_02And they were from Madison, Wisconsin. They weren't even from Florida or Texas, they had flown down and then were biking across. And so, you know, that's this is the second trip, consecutive trip I've been on where I've run into to people doing that, and and so it's it you know also interesting, and they they were talking about having been here before. I mean, this is not their first time doing that.
SPEAKER_00Most of our visitors t who come into the welcome center, most of them are not full, you know, first timers. Most of them have been before.
SPEAKER_02And that was true even for for me when I came in. That was my third trip on the island that I finally went in the welcome center.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh we try to reach out and make sure that everybody knows that we are there because you know, we really haven't had it's only been open as the welcome center about maybe nine years now. And it was the old school, and it was, you know, when they built the new school, they announced they were gonna tear that building down, if you can believe that. We said oh no, because it was built in 1930 and it's so beautiful. And so we raised money, made donations until we got enough money to move it down the what a mile. And a quarter down the road, and the town gave us the property to put it on.
SPEAKER_02And that's the third location that building's been on.
SPEAKER_00It was down by the shell mounds to begin with.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Moved to the um beach in the early 50s behind the dunes because that is a safe air safer area.
SPEAKER_02Right. And the amazing thing is, and I was discussing this when I talked with Miss Connie because she taught was that that, you know, you stop and think about what that that building's been through. I mean, it survived Frederick, it survived Katrina, it survived, you know, we're telling how many others.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh. Even when it was sitting down there, it got a lot of water under it with uh Katrina. Right. And uh, you know, and some rot damage and things, but it it really did well structurally. It did fantastic.
SPEAKER_02Things were made a little differently.
SPEAKER_00Yes, the wood's a little different. And a lot different.
SPEAKER_02So and I mean the the the interesting thing from my perspective is all the eras that that has been through that that that building has seen. I mean, that that that the kids that have been taught in that building the time between the wars, there was no bridge. That was life before the bridge.
SPEAKER_00The reason, one reason that when the bridge was taken out in 1979 by the storm Frederick, the people on the island, I mean, they were pioneers anyway. They didn't cry, baby, you know, they just got they all have boats. They just did what they needed to do to do what to live their lives. I think it's amazing. And that any s when a storm does come across, and you I mean, even a no-name storm sometimes will just put all kind of trash and mess on on your lot and all you just everybody just goes out and starts picking it up, getting dumpsters, and they it we don't cry, baby, any on the island. Some places do a lot of that, and uh, we don't like that at all.
SPEAKER_02One of the things that I have seen is a lot of times the the people you see who are first to help other areas often are overlooked when they when it happens to them, but they're so self-reliant and resilient that it doesn't really matter.
SPEAKER_00They just pull out the chainsaws and that's you just do what needs to be done.
SPEAKER_02Right. Right. So well I have thoroughly enjoyed our time talking together. Really appreciate uh all the things that we've we've covered today, talking about you know the things that you and of course we talked a good bit at the at the welcome center before I ever turned the recorder on. I'm I'm I'm gonna do the same thing with you that I did with Miss Connie. I'm gonna pull a Dan Rather here.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02What have I not asked you that I should have asked you?
SPEAKER_00I'm trying to remember remember anything that I well I don't know. I think we talked about the fact that Bill and I figured we were all off the island fifty percent of the time uh because we did so much restoration uh not restoration and destination resort work. And and at that time, all those years, our daughter and her family lived in Missoula, Montana, and we would spend time we would travel from one project to another and end up in Missoula. We had a condo there, and we'd take work with us and we would stay and play with the grandkids, and then when it was time to come back to the island for something, we'd head back across. We drove suburbs then, and I, you know, we just did what we did. And so you you you're not talking about flying, you're talking well, we flew if we needed to fly because of time frame or something, but many times we drove, so we have just covered so much of this country. But we did that even when we were in Williamsburg. Every year we took the kids on a long time vacation out west. We had they had been in all the national parks, and we uh for the bicentennial, we were in Aspen, Colorado. Now that's another story. I don't know if you want another story or not.
SPEAKER_02Well, let's let's Okay.
SPEAKER_00Oh before we left Williamsburg, we told each of the kids they could pick a place they wanted to go because they'd been out west before. Uh our son picked the the the gold rush area of California. He loved pan in that, you know, kind of trying to find gold. And he did find a few little pieces every now and then. And uh Suzanne, our daughter, who was I think eleven or twelve then, wanted to go to Aspen, Colorado. And we just shook our head. Suzanne, why do you want to go to Aspen, Colorado? Because I want to meet John Denver. Well, we did everything we could to soften that. We kept saying, you know, we know he has a a home there because he talks about it a lot. And uh she just wouldn't back off of that. I mean, this is all we heard. She's going because she wants to meet John Denver. Well, we ended up in Aspen on 4th of July that day, and we were driv uh we parked up in a construction site because my husband had his hard hats in the car, and we just put some up on the dash. Nobody would bother the car and walked to the nearest corner and uh went down to get the parade. You could hear the parade coming. Now I'm telling you, I have never seen a parade like that in my life. It was so hilarious and took forever. Everything in town was in that parade. Well, we're standing there watching for the parade, the music's getting louder, and Suzanne grabbed her daddy's arm and started pulling on it, and he looked over and he said, Suzanne, what's the matter? Why are you pulling on my arm? And she said, Dad, John Denver standing by me. And he was. So kids can wish for things that really do come true. So he stood there and catered to her, that this child of ours, dur the the whole parade. And his wife, he was married to Annie then, and he had when he walked up to the corner, he had the little boy, uh the little Indian boy they adopted, was on his shoulders. And uh she was pushing the stroller. Then the little boy got in the stroller. He wasn't very old then, and he stood there and just catered to Suzanne all that parade time. And then he said to Bill, right when we could tell that the end was coming, as soon as the parade is over, let's just step back over here and you take all the pictures you want with me with Suzanne. That's what we did. And he told her, he gave her his post office box, and he said, Now you when you get the picture back, you let me know and you send me a copy and I'll sign it and send it back to you. So we did, and he did. So when we got the picture back, I mean I've got a picture, huge photograph somewhere here of her standing with him. That picture, and uh not the one he signed, the one we had enlarged, and but anyway, I had it hanging in here and she took it down recently. I don't know where she hid it. But uh anyway, not only did he do that, about a year later, he ended up coming to William and Mary Hall in Williamsburg for a concert. And we get a registered letter one day, and there are ten front row tickets to his concert at William and Mary Hall for her to come and bring uh, you know, some friends. And so we did, and he dedicated Grandma's feather bed and de dedicated it to her and pointed to his friend Suzanne sitting in the front row. Yeah, isn't that just amazing?
SPEAKER_02And so I want to know how she managed not to wet her pants.
SPEAKER_00Oh, it was just she was beside oh, you've never seen a happier child in your life. But I mean, it just proves that really you can wish sometimes they do come true.
SPEAKER_02They do, they do. So one of the things that you said a moment ago that I don't think we really touched on. I mean, you talked about the restoration, but you talked about traveling to do destination resorts.
SPEAKER_00Oh Lord, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02We didn't talk about that.
SPEAKER_00Well, in addition to do well, we did the restoration of the lighthouse at Hague Point, but we did all the infrastructure for the development there, which is called Hague Point. We did their embarkation center, we rest we did condos, we did single-family homes, and now it's a you know a neighborhood. To get there from uh Hilton Head, you go to Harbor Town, you have to ride their ferry over. You can only get there by ferry. And I don't know if you remember, a lot of people pick up on Defusky because it was where the book, um, The Water's Wide that John Voigt uh it was um starred in, oh one of the first things he was ever in. It's he went there as the school teacher to teach the Gullah kids. And they could not say Conroy. They called him Conrak, and that's why the you know in the movie but that's it's a true story. It's the I can't remember the writer's name. He's yeah, Pat Conroy. Pat Conroy is who he the part he played. Okay, and that that was just a fantastic movie. And if anybody it's called The Water The Water's Wide, I think is the the movie name.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00But it's worth we've got the book at the Welcome Center. Okay, but the movie is just oh one of the best movies anybody would ever best tear jerking movie you'd ever want to see.
SPEAKER_02Well, I spent some time, of course, across the the river from there. Because that's where Paris Island is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I've been close to that too, going and coming up through that area so much.
SPEAKER_02So, but but no, that's that's interesting. So Hague Point was was more than just a restoration in the U.S.
SPEAKER_00We also did um a lot of work on Palmetto Hall, which is on Hilton Head. We did, you know, other than the Hague Point work. And then uh that work was from uh Greenwood Corporation of South Carolina, and then they were in Brevard, and we went over to the Brevard and did a development for them, and just a lot of work in South. They were really a good, they're a good South Carolina company. They have a lot of pretty developments.
SPEAKER_02I see. Well, one of the things I what the what little I know of Hilton Head was that it it was being developed post-World War II at about the same time Dolphin Island was also being developed.
SPEAKER_00Well, the first time I didn't the first time we went there was to to redo a condo there for friends of ours that were clients of ours in Williamsburg. And that would have been in the 70s, you know, sometime. But we ended we ended up keeping our boat there in the wintertime at Hilton at Harbor Town. And we would go at like at Christmas vacation and stuff and stay on the boat because we could just get there were restaurants and everything around Harbortown. So for years and years and years we were going there for all kinds of reasons. And uh really enjoyed everything we did there. Lots of really good restaurants, nice folks, pretty developments, and uh, but you didn't go walking down to golf course without watching where you're going to alligators everywhere.
SPEAKER_02And and I remember what I remember one of the things that you know we we went out on uh a point, I forget what the name of the point was where we were out and it was doing um you know fortifications, doing, you know, digging foxholes kind of thing. And the drill instructor would like to kind of rub it in. It's like, hey boys, look across the river over there. You know what's over there? That's it that's Hilton Head Island over there. Yeah. If you can swim over there, you can get you can get away from all this, you can go over there. Just be remembered there's gators in that river.
SPEAKER_00Lots of gators. First time I saw a manatee was up at Harbor Town. They would come in there and uh bring the mom, especially when they had babies. That's Alexa talking to us. She's giving us a weather report. No, they they would come in there because it was safe haven for them with the little babies. I had never seen one up close. I'd been to some places where they, you know, rivers down in Florida that they that you can swim with. I never did that. But they've got the longest eyelashes. They are the sweetest looking things you have ever seen. When they and they come up, and honestly, you can just put your hand, pat them on the head sometimes. And they come up uh up the bay every now and then, but not very often. I was gonna say I've I've read that there's there's some that migrate between the not very often though, and uh, but they are so gentle and so neat. I'm glad I got to see them up close.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So I think we covered the things that I went back, circled back around to. Any other things that you would like to share that that come to mind for you?
SPEAKER_00No, I just feel like that you know, looking back, I couldn't I could not have had a better life. I love what I what I have done and what we did and my doing being able to be with our grandkids and while they lived in Montana having a place there. We I mean it's just like everything we ever touched was blessed.
SPEAKER_02That's very that's very very good, very neat.
SPEAKER_00And we have uh if you ask a lot of people on the island, they won't tell you they know a lot about me or that they are real close because we we were close to us. And we always pre we uh maintained that. I don't join clubs, never have, never care to, and I don't go to exercise classes. I just I'm just me. I just do what I do.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's uh been a pleasure making your acquaintance and and getting to talk to you and getting to know you like this. And the and the background of the stories you have, I think it's a great it's a gr it's great stuff. I mean it's it's it you know f from from my perspective in terms of what I'm doing with the podcast and and trying to capture not just the history of the island, which is certainly a big part of it, but the relationships that are a part of that. I mean, the the the the the really neat thing about the island is the people. And and that's true, even I I don't I don't see all the transplants, and there's a lot of transplants here.
SPEAKER_00There are a lot of them, and a lot of them get involved with things, but the mostly the things that they get involved with are not the things that I'm involved in.
SPEAKER_02Sure, but the the where I was going with this is that they have not diluted the the the the the the sense of community.
SPEAKER_00Not at all.
SPEAKER_02And and that's the I and I think that's another thing that's really neat. The kind of people who are attracted to come here and be a part of this community fit in just like the natives.
SPEAKER_00And the ones, you know, if people come and they don't fit in, they don't they don't stay long.
SPEAKER_02And that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yes, uh, you know, because we're not splashy and you know all this hoopla, not you know, we're not one of these other barrier islands. I mean, not so many of them are even uh well like all you gotta do is go across the ferry to see what I'm talking about. Sure. Nothing like that.
SPEAKER_02Right. And and I mean, you know, there there are people for whom I I I I laugh about it. Um being from Tennessee, I call it Gatlinburg on the beach over there. It's very, very touristy. It's it's designed to be very touristy. There's a lot of a lot of condos, a lot of Airbnbs, a lot and and and you know, there's a place for that, obviously. It's not where I want to spend a lot of time. And obviously there are people here on this island that feel that same way because I was naming when we were talking the other day sitting in the in the in the um welcome center, the the chains that are on this island. And I there's an additional one that I have to add to it now, but it's hidden. The Chevron Station is one, the the Circle K is one, the Renaissance Bank is one.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02Inside the Circle K there's a subway.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's but we don't consider that fast. We don't that's we've we don't have one of those drive-up things. And we won't e we won't ever have one.
SPEAKER_02Right. And that's the thing. I mean, and and I mean it's not that there was never any of that here, but what or at least there in terms of change. You don't even have chain hotels here.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_02And and you have had in the past, but that we had one the holiday inn and it washed away in the middle.
SPEAKER_00It went way in 79. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02With with Frederick, and you know, the those things are I mean, there it's just the the leadership of the island works to keep it where it is local business friendly, which is really I think important.
SPEAKER_00I think so too, and I think that's that's been a blessing to have it be that way. I don't think any of us that have lived on the island as long as I have would ever want it to you know. People if they move here and they realize that it's not, you know, that it's not their cup of tea, then they don't they're not gonna be here long.
SPEAKER_02And there are like you say, you can go across the bay and and and you know the area around Fort Morgan, there's stuff going up all the time when you go over. There's a lot of new construction.
SPEAKER_00If you look out around Lafitte Bay right now, how many houses do you see with lights on?
SPEAKER_02There's uh a handful of them, and most of those lights are actually on the docks.
SPEAKER_00They're not in So I mean this I don't have a lot of full-time neighbors, do I? And I don't I love it.
SPEAKER_02Right. But I mean, even even if you did have the full-time neighbors.
SPEAKER_00No, they're almost everybody around Lafitte Bay are people who've owned the homes a long, long time. Right. Family homes that are handed down from one family member to another. Right. And we have some new ones, but uh there weren't very many lots left. And the ones, the new ones we do have are beautiful homes and lovely people, so they're welcome here.
SPEAKER_02Well then and and the other thing I think that's is is neat, is interesting is you know, Mr. Bill's gone, but his work lives on. And the fact is somebody building a house on the island today could conceivably use one of his plants.
SPEAKER_00And they probably, you know, do all I mean there's still a lot of people that order those plants. Thank thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02Right, because you're seeing you're receiving some royalties there. But but I mean that's that's that's just you know really super I you know the when when you have some something where you you're a builder to know that what you've built is continuing after you're gone. It's it it you that you've left your mark on and he's left his mark on the island.
SPEAKER_00Oh he has, definitely.
SPEAKER_02And and and the first time my wife and I were here, we drove all the way down Benville, went all the way to the West Beach, and we were figuring out, okay, if we were here, where would we want to be? And of course, for me it was on the eastern end of the island. But looking at that that big blue house down there, I was like, that's that's the kind of place I wish I could could build.
SPEAKER_00That's that's well that is strictly a family home, will never be rented. It's wonderful, a wonderful family who are great friends of mine. They have a ton of grandkids, and oh they're about 15 grandkids, and only three, I three are little girls. And it can be the noisiest house on the island sometimes.
SPEAKER_02Which is probably good. It's all by itself then because it's it's almost on West Beach. I mean, they are they are right there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So they are great friends and uh we're wonderful clients to work with.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's great. Well, let me just go ahead and say again, thank you so much for your time for opening your home.
SPEAKER_00Well, I am glad you could come over. I wanted you to come so I could show you some of these things that I, you know, really couldn't spread out down there.
SPEAKER_02It's been an absolute joy and pleasure to to to have all this shared with me, and I really appreciate your hospitality. Thank you so very much.
SPEAKER_00Well, you're welcome anytime, and I'm look forward to your wife coming and her mom too, if she comes.
SPEAKER_02Yes, ma'am. And and um, you know, also the the that you know from from this I hope that we'll have some additional conversations coming. Sure.
SPEAKER_00That that uh and come come come Don, like I told you before, he he come normally comes to the welcome center in the morning every day, some well I will be I will be there in the morning.
SPEAKER_02That's the plan tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00I can't remember. I think it's uh honestly don't remember who's gonna be working tomorrow because two or three of them have switched around lately because of being out of town.
SPEAKER_02Sure. So the welcome center opens at nine, correct?
SPEAKER_00Uh ten. Ten.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Ten to four.
SPEAKER_00And every day but Sunday.
SPEAKER_02Okay. All right. Well, that's uh good to know. I'm gonna try to be my goal, we'll see how that works out because I'm getting a late shot going home.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, you gotta make that drive. Well, I'm but you know, I'm there three afternoons a week. I'm there Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
SPEAKER_02Well, I'm what I'm hoping to do is be back on Pelican Point at daybreak. I like to be there to take pictures.
SPEAKER_00Oh good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's my favorite spot on the island.
SPEAKER_00Well, good. That's pretty.
SPEAKER_02So all right. Well, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you.