Raised wood frame houses around Fort Moultrie's brick and concrete batteries, and the street Dear John dressed as a fictional African outpost.
What Sullivan's Island looks like
The island is a narrow barrier strip at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, reached by the from Mount Pleasant and a separate bridge over from Isle of Palms. Middle Street runs its length, with a short stretch of shops near the middle.
Near the houses are two storey wood frame officer's quarters with double porches stacked one above the other, screened in and painted in soft colors from pale pink to white. Several carry a small railed deck or an enclosed cupola at the roofline, and palmettos and live oaks crowd the front yards.
Fort Moultrie itself sits at the western tip, its brick walls faced with eight low reinforced concrete gun batteries completed by 1906. The National Park Service runs the site, and a small white boathouse from the old Coast Guard station stands nearby along the same stretch of coast.
A slim triangular lighthouse rises well above the tree line at the harbor entrance, painted grey over white. Toward the Isle of Palms end, a low bridge crosses Breach Inlet, with beach houses visible along the shore on either side. Nearer the fort, a crushed shell path winds through dune plantings to a beach overlook with benches and a view of the water.
Shot in Sullivan's Island
For Dear John, the production built a fictional African military outpost within Fort Moultrie's grounds, standing in for a tour of duty on the "Congo" coast. Savannah's beachfront home a few blocks away, at , appears earlier in the same film. The ABC miniseries North and South filmed the wedding of George Hazard and Constance Flynn at , on Osceola Avenue.
Dear John, 2010
The African outpost set
Played a military outpost, the fictional "Congo" coast, West Africa, present day
The production dumped three inches of sand and fill dirt over part of a street on the fort's grounds to turn it into an African outpost for John's tour of duty scenes. Savannah's beachfront house at 1109 Middle Street and the neighboring house at 1111, where Tim lives, appear several blocks away toward the harbor. Street View
Raised wood frame cottages on shallow porches line Tybee Island much as they line Sullivan's Island, both barrier islands guarding a harbor with a historic fort at one end. Fort Screven sits within a short walk of the beach cottages, the same pairing Fort Moultrie makes with the houses on Middle Street. Tybee's cottages sit closer together and its planting is sparser than Sullivan's Island, so a wide shot needs careful framing to avoid giving away the tighter lot lines. Try searching raised beach cottages now.
Governors Island in New York, New York
Fort Jay's early 19th century brick walls give Governors Island a coastal defense fort from close to the same period as Fort Moultrie's own brick rebuild, a short ferry ride from Manhattan rather than a flight to Charleston. Castle Williams, the round fort next to it, is red sandstone rather than brick. Framing on Fort Jay's brick faces alone avoids Castle Williams' sandstone color up close, and keeping the Manhattan skyline out of a wide shot keeps the Governors Island setting from showing. Try searching brick coastal fort now.
Fort Tilden in New York, New York
Fort Tilden's low poured concrete gun batteries, built during the same Endicott era coastal defense program as Fort Moultrie's, sit on a public beach on the Rockaway Peninsula. The batteries are abandoned and covered in graffiti, unlike Fort Moultrie's maintained grounds. Fort Tilden's batteries face the open Atlantic rather than a harbor entrance, so open ocean on both sides of a frame gives away the Rockaway Peninsula over Charleston Harbor. Try searching concrete gun batteries now.
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