Restoration and Interpretation of Tabby Cabins

For the Ossabaw Island Foundation, Laura Drummond researched the conservation of the historic coastal building material known as ‘tabby’.  She documented the history of tabby in the southeastern United States, the tabby production process, and its evolving construction methods.

Laura also researched the histories of the various tabby structures on Ossabaw, one of Georgia’s coastal barrier islands, and helped create an Interpretive Plan for the three circa 1840 tabby slave cabins of the island’s North End Plantation.  The Plan was produced by the Heritage Preservation Program at Georgia State University.

On a return trip to Ossabaw Island, Laura assisted in the restoration of the tabby on the three cabins, which housed slaves, and later, servants until the 1990s.