A Church Gets Built First on Hilton Head's Mid-Island Tract

"This new campus will honor our history while creating opportunities for future generations," Herbert Ford, a trustee and spokesperson for St. James Baptist Church, said in the Town of Hilton Head Island's relocation announcement in July.

That campus is going up on Union Cemetery Road. The site is inside the Town's Mid-Island Initiative Area, which the Town describes as "situated between the Indigo Run, Palmetto Hall, and Port Royal neighborhoods." For Indigo Run households, this is local news. The Town approved a park plan for its 103-acre Mid-Island Tract in 2022. The first part of that land to get a construction date is a 4.67-acre campus for a congregation founded in 1886 and a one-room schoolhouse built around 1937.

The Runway Reached the Church

St. James sits at Beach City and Dillon roads, right next to Hilton Head Island Airport. The church and the Cherry Hill School are older than the airport. But the airport's 700-foot runway extension, finished in 2018, put the church inside the Runway Protection Zone, as The Post and Courier reported. That zone is the area near a runway's end that the Federal Aviation Administration treats as critical for protecting people on the ground. The FAA's guidance lists churches and schools as incompatible uses there and encourages airports to acquire and relocate those uses where practicable.

The congregation reached its own conclusion before any government did. The church's history page says its Airport Committee recognized in 2017 that fighting the expansion put members at risk. The Island Packet reported in 2019 that church leaders agreed to relocate in late 2018, and that Town Council voted that February to negotiate the purchase and the move.

So the July 2026 agreement closed out about eight years of work. The Town lists the relocation as a priority in its Town Council Strategic Action Plan.

Why the Site Matters

St. James was founded in August 1886 in Mitchelville by former members of First African Baptist Church who wanted a place to worship in the freedmen's village. The church calls itself the oldest continuously operating cultural institution left in Historic Mitchelville. The Town calls it "a cornerstone of the Island's Gullah cultural heritage."

The new campus is in Grassland, which the Town lists as a Historic Gullah Neighborhood. The Town's profile describes Grassland as the land along Union Cemetery Road, close to the Big Hill community. It was a farming area known for watermelon, beans and corn, and its families owned tracts large enough to farm at scale.

The Town says Union Cemetery was once called Government Cemetery and served as the burial ground for soldiers who died on Hilton Head during the Civil War. Those graves were later moved to the National Cemetery in Beaufort. The Heritage Library lists the cemetery at 10 Union Cemetery Road. The church's new address is 9 Union Cemetery Road, right next door.

The Town's own description of Hilton Head's Gullah neighborhoods says they were founded in the late 1860s and share worship places, one-room schools, access to the water and family-held land. The new campus brings a church and a one-room school into one of those neighborhoods together.

What Goes on the 4.67 Acres

The Town's announcement describes the campus this way:

The schoolhouse is the piece with the most history attached. Its National Register nomination describes Cherry Hill School as a one-room wooden building at 210 Dillon Road. It was built around 1937 as the island's first freestanding school built for African American children, and the nomination dates its years as a school from 1937 to 1954. The church's own history gives 1937 to 1956. St. James bought it from the Beaufort County School District in 1956 and still owns it. The church gives November 21, 2012 as the date the school joined the National Register.

The Post and Courier reported that moving the schoolhouse was the church's condition for accepting the relocation. So the 1937 building goes to Union Cemetery Road along with the congregation.

How the Land Changes Hands

Three governments and a congregation each have a role, and the order matters. Based on the Town's announcement and Island Packet reporting from June, the steps are:

1. The Town buys about 1.70 acres at Beach City and Dillon roads, which include the church and the schoolhouse, for about $1.3 million. This is part of the airport's long-term runway mitigation program.
2. The Town leases the existing buildings back to the church for $1 a year, so services continue until the new campus is ready.
3. The Town sells the 4.667-acre Union Cemetery Road parcel to Beaufort County for $1.
4. Beaufort County oversees construction and the schoolhouse move, and covers any cost overruns.
5. Once the campus is finished, the County transfers it to St. James for $10.
6. The old church is torn down after the move. Any historic artifacts found at the old site become Town property, with St. James as curator.

The Island Packet put the project's estimated cost at $9.84 million. The Town's funding list includes a $4.75 million state appropriation, $3.5 million in Beaufort County general obligation bonds and a $300,000 Town and County agreement. The Town also donated the 4.67 acres. The Town's list also shows its $1.29 million purchase of the old site and a $1.29 million construction escrow from the church. The Island Packet describes these as the same money, since the church is setting aside the sale proceeds for construction.

Mayor Alan Perry, in the Town's announcement, thanked the State of South Carolina, Senator Tom Davis and the Lowcountry Legislative Delegation for their "advocacy and financial support." Beaufort County Council Chair Alice Howard called it a partnership that shows "what can be accomplished when governments and community institutions work together."

The Tract's First Construction Date

When Town Council adopted the Mid-Island District Plan in 2022, it gave the Mid-Island Tract, the former Planters Row golf course, a future as a public park with space for play, ecological discovery, cultivated landscapes and cultural landmarks. The Town's district page still lists "Design and build a new park on the Town-owned Mid-Island Tract" as an implementation step, and gives no opening date.

The church campus has moved through approvals more quickly:

• June 9, 2026: Town Council approved the purchase, the lease and the land transfer on first reading.
• July 14, 2026: Council approved the ordinances on second and final reading.
• October 13, 2026: Council adopted second reading of a zoning map amendment to the Port Royal PD-1 Master Plan. It adds religious institutions as a permitted use on the 4.667 acres along Union Cemetery Road, which clears the way for the church and the school.
• October 24, 2026: A free public groundbreaking was set for 10 a.m. at 9 Union Cemetery Road, hosted by St. James Baptist Church, Beaufort County and the Town, according to WTOC. The station tied the ceremony to the congregation's 140-year history.
• March 2028: The Island Packet's expected completion date, after construction starts in October 2026.

The district plan has other parts besides the park. It suggests the shopping centers around the tract could become compact, walkable areas mixing commercial and residential uses. It also points to a development pattern of 6 to 8 dwelling units per acre for the historic neighborhoods. None of those changes has a schedule. The St. James campus does. Through its expected March 2028 completion, the construction between Indigo Run, Palmetto Hall and Port Royal will be at 9 Union Cemetery Road, where a 250-seat sanctuary and the relocated Cherry Hill School are going up next to Union Cemetery.

I grew up seven generations deep in this island's Gullah story, so seeing St. James and Cherry Hill School go up together in Grassland means a lot to me. If you live in Indigo Run and want to talk about how the mid-island is changing around your gate, or what your home is worth as it does, John Campbell and The Native Islander Group are glad to sit down with you. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to start with the numbers. We can cover the history whenever you're ready.