Preservation group to restore Gullah cottages

DAUFUSKIE ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — A preservation group plans to restore several abandoned and run-down Gullah cottages on Daufuskie Island on the southern tip of South Carolina.

The Island Packet of Hilton Head reports (http://bit.ly/At630s ) that The Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation in Columbia plans to make the cottages habitable again.

The group plans to rent the cottages to tourists for a time and then return the cottages to their owners.

Executive director Michael Bedenbaugh says the group has enough money to restore at least two cottages now and hopes the first can be renovated by June. Some of the cottages are 150 years old.

Gullah is the culture of slave descendants on the sea islands along the Southeast coast.

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Information from: The Island Packet, http://www.islandpacket.com