The 'Blue Lady' Haunts Harbour Town
A True Tale of Misfortune.
One night while dining at CQ’s restaurant in Harbour Town, I learned about the mysterious Blue Lady. Owner Eric Thompson, general manager of CQ’s, told us the Blue Lady of long ago haunts them to this day. He has heard footsteps, seen the lights flicker, and witnessed liquor bottles behind the bar begin to shake with no explanation. She turns on faucets and makes unidentified phone calls to CQ’s restaurant next to the old cottages in Harbour Town.
A true tale of misfortune for the Blue Lady took place in what is now Palmetto Dunes.
Thompson said, “The Blue Lady was the daughter of a Hilton Head Island lighthouse keeper in the 19th century. Adam Fripp. His daughter, Caroline, lived with him and were both devoted to keeping ships safe during storms.” This is the lighthouse that sits near the 5th hole of the Arthur Hills Golf Course.
In 1898 a powerful hurricane battered the coast of South Carolina. It was one of the deadliest storms to hit the region and reportedly was the cause of more than 1,000 deaths in the area. Take one look at the skeletal tower of the lighthouse and you can easily imagine how treacherous it must have been to climb to its lamp at the top during the wind and rain of stormy weather.
On this night Adam struggled through the whipping wind and pounding rain to keep the lighthouse flame lit, worried for the safety of any ships offshore. The stress was too much and Adam suffered a heart attack - falling from the perilous ladder of the lighthouse tower.
Caroline rushed from the safety of the lighthouse keeper’s cottage to her father’s aid, helping him to his bed and pleading for him to let her go for help. With his last breath, Adam insisted she stay at the lighthouse to keep the lamp lit for the safety of others.
Young Caroline Fripp obeyed her father’s dying wishes and spent the evening going between the cottage and the lighthouse, climbing to the top of the tower to tend to the flame. The events of that fateful night never left Caroline, who can still be seen pacing between the two structures with grief for days, maybe even weeks after a storm, mourning her father and refusing to take off the blue dress she had been wearing the night he died.
To this day, whenever the skies darken and stormy weather arrives, there are reports of the figure of a woman in a blue dress, pacing outside the lighthouse - the Blue Lady of Palmetto Dunes. Reports of sobbing have been reported.
The Blue Lady is known by many. People moving to rural Hilton Head in the 1960s told and retold the tale. When Sea Pines was taking shape, founder Charles E. Fraser moved two buildings from the base of the Leamington lighthouse in Palmetto Dunes to an area he later called Harbour Town. As islanders are quick to attest, the Blue Lady tagged along with her home.
CQ’s building was designed and built by the late artist Ralph Ballantine. He built it as his studio shortly after building his home in 1967. He used lumber rescued from old South Carolina barns, and the flooring came from Savannah while the Blue Lady stayed in the little white cottages.
The two little white lighthouse cottages are still in Harbour Town. At first, one cottage housed a corporate library for Sea Pines. In 1972, Signe Gardo opened Signe’s Heaven Bound Bakery and Cafe there. Over the years, the buildings have housed a women’s clothing store and real estate offices. And the Blue Lady.
