Although the house was built by Colonel T.L. Huston in 1927, 60-plus years after slaves were freed, the house is connected and tied all the way to the marrow of the bones, Lotson said.

It is tragic that arson incinerated the iconic Huston house on Butler Island in McIntosh County, on June 26. It had withstood nature’s vagaries for almost a century. The flaming Huston house ...