A century after her late parents bought a 26,000-acre Chatham County island that she would love and protect for nearly as long, the late Eleanor “Sandy” Torrey West’s former home is set for an extensive restoration project.
The project will involve the Torrey West House, Little Torrey House and a building that served as a garage and studio on Ossabaw Island.
The work is expected to begin in late fall, nearly 50 years after passage of legislation championed by then-Gov. Jimmy Carter that would make Ossabaw the state’s first acquisition under the Georgia Heritage Preserve Act.
The governor signed the law in 1975 and West sold the island – at the urging of Carter, who would be elected the nation’s 39th President in 1976 – to the state three years later for $8 million, which was half Ossabaw’s appraised value at the time.
Under the arrangement, she would continue to manage the Torrey West Estate, situated on Georgia’s third-largest barrier island, until she was 103, even though it is only accessible by boat.
When West died in 2021 at age 108, Carter was among those who offered remembrances, recalling her “dogged determination to preserve Ossabaw for future generations” even if it meant “giving up the fortune she could have realized from its development.”
That conviction was rooted in the belief that Georgia’s string of barrier islands represented siblings in a larger coastal family.
“Whatever happens to one of these large islands involves the other islands,” West told a 1968 conference on preserving Georgia’s marshlands, “and as a consequence the entire coast of Georgia, and perhaps the eastern coast of the United States.”
Funding for the project is included in the 2025-2025 Georgia Department of Natural Resources budget.
The Ossabaw Island Foundation, which manages the state-owned property near Savannah, is “over the moon” that the project has been funded, said Executive Director Elizabeth DuBose.
The island’s longtime protector would have been, too, she added.
“Sandy West did fret about what would happen to her family’s winter home,” DuBose said in an email to the Savannah Morning News. “I know she would be pleased that the foundation will use the house just as she did when she hosted interdisciplinary learners from all over the world from 1961 to 1983.
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History in the remaking
The three structures on the 23-acre Torrey West Estate were built between 1926 and 1950.
The iconic Spanish Revival 20,000-square-foot Torrey West House and its two outbuildings are contributing structures in the Ossabaw Island Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Georgia DNR’s Engineering and Construction Division will lead the rehab. DuBose, who said she’s worked closely with DNR since last year in planning the work, will act as an adviser.
The foundation will remove and store all the furniture and other contents, and resume management of the property when work is completed.
“TOIF will use the rehabilitated buildings to provide expanded housing options, meeting space, and workspace for groups who travel to Ossabaw for natural, scientific and cultural study, research and education; and environmentally sound preservation, conservation and management of the island’s ecosystem,” the foundation said in announcing the project.
“This is an exciting time for Ossabaw Island and for the foundation as we launch into this important partnership with the Department of Natural Resources,” added Leigh Goff, chair of the Ossabaw Island Foundation Board of Trustees. “How fitting that this new chapter begins 100 years after the Torrey family purchased Ossabaw.”
John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Georgia barrier island the site of upcoming restoration project
