In July 1911, eight years after the Wright brothers left the ground at Kitty Hawk, two Georgetown brothers rolled a flying machine onto the old rice fields at Willowbank Plantation and tried to get it into the air.
Today those same Willowbank grounds are a neighborhood of live oaks and quiet streets, and one of its most storybook homes, 500 Orange Street, has just come on the market.
Willowbank has a story few people know. In July 1911, brothers Preston and Gurdon Tarbox used the old rice fields at Willowbank Plantation as an airstrip for Georgetown’s first airplane flight, and their father photographed it all. Read the full history of Willowbank and Georgetown’s first flight.
Today the Willowbank neighborhood sits just north of Georgetown’s Historic District, off Church Street, under a canopy of live oaks and a short drive from Front Street, the Harborwalk and Winyah Bay.
500 Orange Street: an English cottage with secret gardens
A brick walk curves through boxwoods and azaleas to a chimneyed brick cottage with black shutters, the kind of house that looks like it came out of the English countryside and settled under Lowcountry live oaks.
Inside, everything is on one level. There are 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths, a 20-foot living room, and a dining room anchored by a fireplace. The 22-foot kitchen has warm wood cabinetry, a center island and a sunny breakfast area. A dedicated office handles working from home, and the primary suite runs nearly 22 feet with its own bath.
Then there’s the detail nobody forgets. Two pieces of real ship hulls were built into the house as structural beams. One spans the opening between the living room and the kitchen. The oval openings cut through the hull, originally made to pass conduit and plumbing through the ship, have been fitted with stained glass, so the light catches them every time you walk through. The second ship’s-hull beam crowns another room. It’s the kind of one-of-a-kind character you can’t add to a house later.
The cottage details carry through. One of the baths has a clawfoot tub under a window, and the 20-by-14 screened porch, with its ceiling fans and wood beams, is built for long Lowcountry evenings.
The gardens
The grounds are the real surprise. Brick paths wind through garden rooms under the oaks. A vine-covered pergola shades a gravel courtyard, and a wrought-iron gate opens into a walled corner of the garden. Every turn feels like a secret garden.
A carriage-house-style apartment
The property also includes a carriage-house-style lockout apartment with its own entry. It works as a guest suite, a place for visiting family, a studio, or a home office with real separation from the main house.
Take the tour
Walk every room right now with the 3D tour and interactive floor plan:
Open the 3D tour in a new window
Offered at $697,800
- 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, all on one level
- Carriage-house-style lockout apartment
- Two beams made from real ship hulls, one with stained-glass openings
- Fireplace in the dining room
- 22-foot kitchen with island and breakfast area
- Dedicated office
- 20-by-14 screened porch
- Brick walks, pergola courtyard and walled garden rooms under live oaks
- Heat pump; roof installed in 2012 (per the seller’s disclosure)
- Willowbank neighborhood, just north of Georgetown’s Historic District
Schedule a private showing: Justin Steel, The Steel Group at Keller Williams. Contact us here.
Room dimensions are approximate, from the floor plan. History sources are listed in our Willowbank history feature.