LAST UNDEVELOPED TRACT OF LAND
Named after the property’s original owner Elouise Spears, The Spears Preserve at Harrington is a natural oasis in one of the most densely developed neighborhoods on St. Simons Island. It is the last large undeveloped tract of land south of the Lawrence Road-Frederica Road roundabout and contains beautiful mature maritime forest, palmetto thickets, and considerable marsh frontage.
THINGS TO DO
The maritime forest inside the Preserve will remain untouched, and the public will be able to experience it through the Elouise Spears Heritage and Nature Trail, an earthen path that will weave through the property and provide opportunities for birding, hiking, and learning more about an invaluable piece of the island’s and the region’s history.
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- Rendering of trailhead
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- Proposed trail
THE HISTORY OF PROTECTING THE SPEARS PRESERVE FOREVER
The Harrington Community was once home to formerly enslaved people who had worked on Georgia’s barrier islands during the plantation era. Following the American Civil War, the land that runs between North Harrington and South Harrington Roads, in the mid-island area of St. Simons along Frederica Road, was divided into ten-acre lots that were owned by descendants of those enslaved people. It became the largest residential neighborhood on the island for African-American families, who used the now 100-year-old Historic Harrington School as a community center as well as a place to raise and educate their children.
Over the decades, nearly all the original 10-acre parcels were sold and subdivided multiple times, resulting now in roughly two dozen different POA’s and hundreds of homes. The once intact community of primarily African-American residents founded businesses, restaurants, churches, and the historic school. One of the very last families to own their original property was led by Mrs. Elouise Spears.
“Elouise Spears was a pioneering conservationist in our community. It was she who coined the phrase ‘Don’t Ask, Won’t Sell.’ For decades, she and her ancestors set the example of land stewardship on St. Simons.”
Jim Barger, Jr., Chair of the Land Trust’s Board of Directors
Only a few of those “Don’t Ask, Won’t Sell” signs remain on the island, and now less than 2% of the residents in the Harrington Community are descendants or the original landowners.
The Land Trust will be working with the Dixons and others in the Harrington community to not only preserve the land itself, but to honor the significance of those who settled there and made it their home for so many years.
FUN FACT:
The Spears Preserve at Harrington contains ideal habitat for diamondback terrapins, small mammals, wood storks, and painted buntings.
Protected Properties
Welcome to the Land Trust's newest property!