Does it matter what you call something? It is what it is, after all. Doesn’t that matter a lot more than a name or a word? Well, yes and no.

Words and facts have a kind of chicken-or-egg relationship. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell which came first. Our sunny plaza, punctuated with palm trees and embraced by The Shops at Sea Pines Center, offers us an example of that. Years ago, folks called it a courtyard.

Turns out that wasn’t exactly right. What we have here, really, is a place where people discover things, where they get together and encounter each other. That makes it a plaza.

What People Really Do Here

We gathered together a few years ago for some planning, and we talked about what we see our customers, friends, and neighbors doing here in The Shops at Sea Pines Center. We see long-time Sea Pines residents catching up with each other and sharing the latest local news. We see seasonal residents reconnecting after being away for a while. We see visitors and guests chatting, to see what’s going on this week that they would enjoy taking part in.

It’s the kind of thing that communities have provided as far back in history as it is possible to see.

In Every Village and Town

In every village there was a well, granary, or grindstone where people got together in the normal course of their week. In every town, there was a courthouse square or a Main Street or a Church Street that seemed to bring people together. In every city, there was a forum or marketplace – or plaza – where the things that people knew converged to become common knowledge, the collective point of view. These places became the heart of the community, because of what people shared when they got together there.

More than Stores and Restaurants

Seeing that The Shops at Sea Pines Center performed this service, too, we began to say “plaza” rather than “courtyard,” when we talk about the place that our shops embrace. Courtyards are for castles. A plaza is the heart of a community. We are fortunate to have grown into that role, here in the middle of the original Hilton Head Island vision, the place where America’s favorite island resort began. And we are grateful to perform this role, too.