Yet the use of natural air and light in our surroundings is something we value again, now that sustainability and energy efficiency are a priority. And a stroll through the Bluffton Historic District can be a refresher course in how the folks who came before us used them wisely. The place to start that stroll is historic Heyward House.

Since 1998 the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society has operated Heyward House as a welcome center and museum. It’s hard to beat as a starting point because it exemplifies the Carolina farmhouse style that was brought to the colonies here by planters from the British West Indies.

The long, sloping roof integrates a building-wide porch with the downstairs sitting rooms, connected through large and abundant windows, as a built-in cooling mechanism. We see this solution repeated half a world away, in the British colonial retreats of India, where we later get the term, bungalow. This collection of similar solutions migrated again to America during the boom in middle-class housing of the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries.

So when we take notice here at Heyward House we are in the middle of an architectural story that spans more than three hundred years of living ingenuity across three continents.

Within a few doors of Heyward House, just down Bridge Street, see how these same principles of air and light were applied to larger, two-story homes, at the Fripp House and the Card House. Those second stories were an opportunity to catch more breezes off the May River. Builders took full advantage of it, as you can see.

And this is just the beginning. There are 25 homes, churches and structures on the Bluffton walking tour. Pick up a self-guiding map at Heyward House or at the Chamber’s Welcome Center located just over the bridge at 100 William Hilton PKWY. Better yet phone 843-757-6393 or visit www.heywardhouse.org for a guided walking tour. I can say from experience that there’s nothing like taking this stroll with a long-time Bluffton resident. I’ve kept the stories and passed them on to my children.