The Oaks, also known as the Cooler House, is a historic

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...

located on Saint Helena Island near

Frogmore Frogmore is an estate within the Home Park, Windsor, Home Park, adjoining Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, England. It comprises , of primarily private gardens managed by the Crown Estate. It is the location of Frogmore House, a royal retreat, and ...

Beaufort County, South Carolina Beaufort County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 187,117. Its county seat is Beaufort and its largest community is Hilton Head Island. Beaufort County is part of the Hilton Hea ...

. It was built about 1855, and is a two-story, vernacular frame

I-House The I-house is a vernacular architecture, vernacular house type, popular in the United States from the colonial period onward. The I-house was so named in the 1930s by Fred Kniffen, a cultural geographer at Louisiana State University who was a sp ...

. Edward L. Pierce chose The Oaks as his headquarters during the military occupation of St. Helena during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. The Oaks was the center for military and agricultural activities on the island. On June 18, 1862, Ellen Murray, who had ten days earlier arrived from Pennsylvania, opened the Penn School for

Freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

in a back room of the house. The house also served as a hotel for military personnel from

Port Royal Port Royal () was a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest and most prosperous city in the Caribbean, functioning as the cen ...

, superintendents, and teachers. It was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1988.

References

African-American history of South Carolina Plantation houses in South Carolina Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Houses completed in 1855 Houses in Beaufort County, South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Beaufort County, South Carolina 1855 establishments in South Carolina {{Agri-stub