350-year-old Port Royal tree an ‘endangered species.’ Owner seeks public money to save it

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that the current amount of funds available in the Rural and Critical Lands Preservation program is $13.8 million, not $18.3 million.

Beaufort County is being asked to earmark public conservation funds to buy and preserve 12 acres in Port Royal that features the county’s largest and oldest tree — and the 205-year-old grave of an enslaved woman who purportedly once studied in its shade.

Merry Land Investments, LLC, the land owner, had previously planned to sell the same property to a developer that wanted to build apartment buildings. Now it is applying for Beaufort County monies set aside to preserve open spaces.

Beaufort County, which is considering the request, has not a made final decision on whether to pursue the property. But the application was welcomed by residents who are fighting to save the monster oak tree, additional trees on the property and the final resting place of Mary Pope, the woman was buried under the tree.

The property was once part of the Cherry Hill Plantation.

“We’re thrilled,” said Hope Cunningham, a resident of Pinckney Retreat, which is located next door to the land, said of the funding application.

Pinckney Retreat residents and the Open Lands Trust encouraged Merry Land to consider applying for public funds available for preservation including the Beaufort County Rural and Critical Land Preservation Program, Cunningham said.

Merry Land’s request for Rural and Critical Land Preservation funds was heard for the first time by a county committee Jan. 12.

The change of heart by the landowner follows opposition to the original plans for the site from residents and the town of Port Royal, which in September refused to approve a variance sought for the three-story apartments.

“I hope you will consider the tremendous potential value of conserving these majestic trees and preserving this property as an ecological resource in Beaufort County,” Cunningham wrote to Tennet Houston, a Merry Land managing partner, in September.

Houston could not immediately be reached for comment.

Through the Rural and Critical Land Preservation Program, the county buys land outright or purchases the development rights. Residents, via bond referendums, have agreed to fund it over the years. There is currently $13.8 million available from a 2018 referendum.

In November, voters also approved a $100 million Green Space penny sales tax to be used to purchase land and save it from development but that’s a separate program and Merry Land is applying for the Rural and Critical Land Preservation Program money, county spokesman Chris Ophardt said.

The property sold for $1.1 million in 2007, according to county records. How much its worth now still needs to be determined.

The Community Service and Land Use Committee will consider the funding proposal Feb. 13, Ophardt said. At that meeting, Ophardt said, committee members will either decline to go further or instruct County Administrator Eric Greenway to develop a proposal including an appraised value.

The County Council will make the final decision.

If the land is acquired, it would be considered a passive park, which is expected to draw visitors to see the oak tree, the waterfront and the grave site.

The land, located on Oak View Drive off of Parris Island Gateway, sits on a bluff overlooking the shores of the western bank of Battery Creek, where the Cherry Hill Plantation once stood.

Lore has it that Pope, who was enslaved, often read and studied under the shade of a large live oak. Both Pope’s 1818 grave marker, and the tree, are still around. Today, the tree, about 60 feet tall, is 113.75 inches in diameter, measured at 4 1/2 feet from the ground, with a circumference of 30 feet 1 inch. It’s girth is as large as the Angel Tree on Johns Island, which is located in a public park managed by the city of Charleston.

Michael Murphy, a master arborist, says the Port Royal’s Cherry Hill tree is the oldest and largest documented tree of any species in Beaufort County. He compared it to an “endangered species.”

“It’s a perfect parcel for rural and critical (lands) because it doesn’t just have good natural resources — it has the biggest,” Murphy says. “So many people come to Beaufort County just for the trees and that’s what they remember when they leave. So this piece of property is like the pinnacle of every other piece. “

Residents who back the county’s purchase of the property say they suspect that there may be additional grave sites on the property beside Pope’s. That’s another reason they say the land should be preserved.