Debordieu Beach, part of which is on Hobcaw Barony property, lies just above the North Inlet estuary.
In 1938 Belle Baruch built her “Grass Shack” cabana on the beach here, where she enjoyed picnics and beach parties with family and friends.
With her in this photograph are her assistant, Lois Massey, and her sister, Renee Baruch Samstag.
During World War II, the American military suspected that German U-boats were patrolling off the east coast of the U.S.
Hobcaw Barony, with its miles of isolated beachfront, was an area of particular concern.
Blackouts were imposed on cars and homes all along the coast, and Belle Baruch’s planes were commandeered for the war effort.
Belle Baruch had worked for the Women’s Radio Corps during World War I, as seen in this photograph. She knew Morse code so well she taught it to army aviators.
When she was approached by Navy Intelligence to work as a coastal observer during World War II, she felt well prepared and knew that the Grass Shack would be the perfect place to monitor suspicious activity at night.
Belle Baruch got her airplanes back after World War II and built a hangar for them near her Bellefield home.
In this c. 1950 photograph she stands next to her single-engine Stinson, in which she was frequently seen flying over Hobcaw Barony in the 1950s and ‘60s, before her death in 1964.
