The Shell Builders

A comprehensive study of the oyster shell building material of the South Carolina Lowcountry

Beaufort, South Carolina,is well known for its historical architecture, but perhaps none is quite as remarkable as those edifices formed by tabby, sometimes called coastal concrete, comprising a mixture of lime, sand, water, and oyster shells. Tabby itself has a storied history stretching back to Iberian, Caribbean, Spanish, and African roots—brought to the United States by merchants, military engineers, planters, and enslaved people.

Colin Brooker, architect and expert on historic restoration, has not only made an exhaustive foray into local tabby architecture and heritage but also a multinational tour in search of tabby origins, evolution, and diffusion from the Bahamas to Morocco to Andalusia, which can be traced back as far as the tenth century. Brooker has spent more than thirty years investigating the origins of tabby, its chemistry, its engineering, and its limitations. The Shell Builders presents a sweeping, indepth, and fascinating investigative journey—at once archaeological, sociological, and historical—into the ways prior inhabitants used and shaped their environment to house and protect themselves, leaving behind an architectural legacy that is both mysterious and beautiful.

Lawrence S. Rowland, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina Beaufort and past president of the South Carolina Historical Society, provides a foreword.