Tabby is a type of
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...
made by burning
oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but no ...
shells to create
lime, then mixing it with water, sand, ash and broken oyster shells.
Tabby was used by early
Spanish settlers in present-day Florida, then by British colonists primarily in
coastal South Carolina and
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
.
It is a man-made analogue of
coquina
Coquina () is a sedimentary rock that is composed either wholly or almost entirely of the transported, abraded, and mechanically sorted fragments of mollusks, trilobites, brachiopods, or other invertebrates. The term ''coquina'' comes from the S ...
, a naturally-occurring sedimentary rock derived from shells and also used for building.
Revivals in the use of tabby spread northward and continued into the early 19th century. Tabby was normally protected with a coating of plaster or
stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
.
Origin
"Tabby" or "tapia" derives from the Spanish ''tabique de ostión'' (literally, "adobe wall of oyster
hell
In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
).
There is evidence that North African
Moors
The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a s ...
brought a predecessor form of tabby to Spain when they invaded the peninsula, but there is also evidence that the Iberian use is earlier and that it spread from there south to Morocco.
A form of tabby is used in Morocco today and some tabby structures survive in Spain, though in both instances the aggregate is granite, not oyster shells.
It is likely that 16th-century Spanish explorers first brought tabby (which appears as ', ', ' and in early documents) to the coast of Florida in the sixteenth century.
[Morris, Susan D. "Tabby". New Georgia Encyclopedia. University of Georgia Libraries, 12/10/2005 Last edited by NGE Staff on 09/24/2014. Accessed April 12, 2015]
/ref> is Spanish for 'mud wall' and Arabic means 'a mixture of mortar and lime'[ or African ''tabi''. In fact, the mortar used to chink the earliest cabins in this area was a mixture of mud and ]Spanish moss
Spanish moss (''Tillandsia usneoides'') is an Epiphyte, epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America (as far ...
.
The oldest known example of tabby concrete in North America is the Spanish Fort San Antón de Carlos located on Mound Key in Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
.
Some researchers believe that English colonists developed their own process independently of the Spanish.
James Oglethorpe
Lieutenant-General James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British Army officer, Tory politician and colonial administrator best known for founding the Province of Georgia in British North America. As a social refo ...
is credited with introducing "Oglethorpe tabby" into Georgia after seeing Spanish forts in Florida and encouraging its use, using it himself for his house near Fort Frederica.[ Later Thomas Spalding, who had grown up in Oglethorpe's house, led a tabby revival in the second quarter of the 19th century sometimes referred to as "Spalding tabby".][ Another revival occurred with the development of ]Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island is an island located in Glynn County, Georgia, United States. It is one of the Sea Islands and one of the Golden Isles of Georgia barrier islands. The island is owned by the State of Georgia and run by a self-sustaining, self-g ...
in the 1880s.[
]
Regions of use
Limestone to make building lime was not locally available to early settlers, so lime was imported or made from oyster shells. Shell midden
A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human oc ...
s along the coast were a supply of shells to make tabby, which diffused from two primary centers or hearths: one at Saint Augustine, Florida, and the other at Beaufort, South Carolina.
The British tradition began later (some time close to, but earlier than, 1700, upon introduction of the techniques from Spanish Florida) than the Spanish (1580), and spread far more widely as a building material, reaching at least as far north as Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...
, New York, where it can be found in the still-standing Abraham Manee House, erected circa 1670. Beaufort, South Carolina, was both the primary center for British tabby and the location of the earliest British tabby in the southeastern US. It was here that the British tradition first developed, and from this hearth tabby eventually spread throughout the sea island district.
Herbert Eugene Bolton, John Tate Lanning
John Tate Lanning (born 1902, died 15 August 1976, Durham, North Carolina) was a historian of Spanish America and held the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus position at Duke University. He was a major scholar of colonial Spanish American history a ...
, and other historians believed, from the mid-19th century into the middle of the 20th century, that tabby ruins in coastal Georgia and northeastern Florida were the remains of Spanish missions, even though local residents had earlier identified the ruins as those of late-18th century plantation buildings. The fact that the ruins were of structures built after the establishment of the Georgia Colony by Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
was not fully accepted by historians until late in the 20th century. With the exception of St. Augustine and, possibly, a few other important places, Spanish mission buildings were built with wooden posts supporting the roof and walls of palmetto thatch
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...
, wattle and daub
Wattle and daub is a composite material, composite building method in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called "wattle (construction), wattle" is "daubed" with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, and ...
or planks, or left open.
The LaPointe Krebs House, also known as the Old Spanish Fort (Pascagoula, Mississippi) is an extant tabby structure on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The house was constructed in 1757 in Louisiane, during the French Colonial period.
Tabby was used in the West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
, including the islands of Antigua
Antigua ( ; ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the local population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua ...
and Barbados
Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...
.
Process
The labor-intensive process depended on slave labor to crush and burn the oyster shells into quicklime
Calcium oxide (formula: Ca O), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term '' lime'' connotes calcium-containin ...
. The quicklime was then slaked (hydrated) and combined with more shells, sand, and water. It was poured or tamped into wood forms called cradles, built up in layers in a similar manner to rammed earth
Rammed earth is a technique for construction, constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as soil, earth, chalk, Lime (material), lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently ...
. Tabby was used in place of bricks, which could not be made locally because of the absence of local clay.
Tabby was used like concrete for floors, foundations, columns, roofs. Besides replacing bricks, it was also used as "oyster shell mortar" or "burnt shell mortar".
Significant examples
* St. Simons Island Light, Georgia (foundation only)
* Wormsloe Plantation house ruins, Isle of Hope, Georgia
* McIntosh Sugarmill, Camden County, Georgia
Link to historical marker on McIntosh sugar works
* Horton House, Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island is an island located in Glynn County, Georgia, United States. It is one of the Sea Islands and one of the Golden Isles of Georgia barrier islands. The island is owned by the State of Georgia and run by a self-sustaining, self-g ...
, Georgia. There is a historical marker.
* Slave quarters at Kingsley Plantation
Kingsley Plantation (also known as the Zephaniah Kingsley Plantation Home and Buildings) is the site of a former estate on Fort George Island, in Duval County, Florida, that was named for its developer and most famous owner, Zephaniah Kingsle ...
, Fort George Island
''For the island in James Bay, Canada, see Chisasibi.''
Fort George Island is an island of some , about long, near the mouth of the St. John's River, in far northeast Duval County, Florida, Duval County/Jacksonville, Florida. Part of the isl ...
, near Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
* Bodiford Drug Store, Cedar Key, Florida
Cedar Key is a city in Levy County, Florida, Levy County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 687, down from 702 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Gainesville, Florida Gainesville met ...
* Heron Restaurant, Cedar Key, Florida
* Island Hotel, Cedar Key, Florida
* Isaac Fripp House Ruins, Saint Helena Island near Frogmore, South Carolina
* Along Florida's west coast, Gamble Plantation Mansion, Ellenton
* George Adderley House in Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...
, Florida
* Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site
Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site sits along the Ashley River (South Carolina), Ashley River, near the town of Summerville, SC, Summerville in Dorchester County, South Carolina. In 1969, the site was donated to the South Carolina State Par ...
near Charleston, South Carolina
* Tabby Manse (Thomas Fuller House), Beaufort, South Carolina
* The LaPointe Krebs House, also known as the Old Spanish Fort (Pascagoula, Mississippi)
See also
* Bahareque
References
Further reading
*
External links
"Tabby: The Oyster Shell Concrete of the Lowcountry"
Beaufort County, South Carolina Public Library.
* , revised version of formal talk, "The Conservation of Tabby in Beaufort County, South Carolina," given at Jekyll Island Club
The Jekyll Island Club was a private club on Jekyll Island, on Georgia's Atlantic coast. It was founded in 1886 when members of an incorporated hunting and recreational club purchased the island for $125,000 (about $3.1 million in 2017) from Jo ...
Hotel, Jekyll Island, Georgia, on February 25, 1998.
Paper on Tabby by the Henry Ford Museum
Tabby
historical marker at Jekyll Island
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tabby (Cement)
Building materials
Concrete
Tabby buildings