The Villas at Coast Cottages

The Villas at Coast Cottages has selected the Coastal Georgia Historical Society as the charity for the 2003 Coastal Living Idea House, opening this summer. Proceeds from the Idea House admissions will be designated for the Old Coast Guard Station renovation effort.

The society is the caretaker of the St. Simons Island Lighthouse, built in 1872, and the Old Coast Guard Station, which is located adjacent to the Idea House property. The station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and will soon begin an extensive renovation process. The Old Coast Guard Station will be turned into a maritime museum after the renovation is complete.

The Coastal Georgia Historical Society has more than 1500 members and has a trained staff of 75 “docents” who regularly conduct tours of the St. Simons Island Lighthouse and Museum. These same volunteers will be recruited to assist with tours of the Idea House.

“ This is such a nice tie-in with our Idea House that we could not pass it up,” said Denval Hamby, developer of The Villas at Coast Cottages. “Both have a strong nautical theme, they are next door to one another, and most importantly, historic preservation is something we feel very strongly about.”

In 2000, Hamby donated a two-acre beachfront parcel to the local land trust, valued at $2 million. The parcel forms a permanent buffer between The Villas at Coast Cottages and The Old Coast Guard Station, which will ensure that the station it will be preserved forever in its natural surroundings. Some of the architecture from the Old Coast Guard Station has even found its way into The Villas.

The Villas at Coast Cottages (www.TheVillasAtCoastCottages.net) is a gated, oceanfront community located on St. Simons Island, Georgia’s favorite beach. The project was developed by The Hamby Corporation to complement its award-winning beachfront neighborhood, Coast Cottages at St. Simons.
St. Simons Island is on the Georgia coast, midway between Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla., and is just minutes from I-95 at exits 29 and 38. For a free Visitors’ Guide, call the Brunswick-Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau (www.bgivb.com) at 1.800.933.COAST (2627).

Covering the shorelines and bay areas of the East, West, and Gulf coasts, as well as the Great Lakes, Coastal Living taps into the uniqueness of the coastal lifestyle and the common threads that connect people who love being by the shore.
Coastal Living (www.coastalliving.com) is published by Southern Progress Corporation, which also publishes Southern Living, Progressive Farmer, Southern Accents, Cooking Light, Health, and Sunset magazines, as well as Oxmoor House books. The Birmingham-based subsidiary of Time Inc. is a leading publisher of lifestyle information.