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Occupying an approximately eight-and-a-half acre strip of land surrounded by tidal marsh, this historic district includes a beach used by African Americans in the early-to-mid-twentieth century. Located on the southern shore of Sol Legare Island and situated between Elijah and King Flats Creeks, the land was once part of the 800-acre Savannah Plantation. Following the Civil War the plantation was divided and sold to African American farmers who formed a freedmen settlement. Three of these parcels comprised the 0.13-mile strip of coastline that subsequently became a destination for African American locals and tourists in the 1920s. Nicknamed Mosquito Beach in the 1950s, it was one of six beaches in Charleston accessible to African Americans, popular for high-tide swimming and fishing and a thriving music, dancing, and dining scene. As Charleston’s public beaches began to desegregate in the 1960s and 1970s, Mosquito Beach’s popularity gradually waned. 

Marked by colorful signage and a mosquito sculpture, the entrance to the historic district on the L-shaped, Mosquito Beach Road runs east to west parallel to the shore. The road, which lacks a sidewalk or curb, is separated from the shore by a generous verge. The relatively level terrain includes scattered groupings of canopy deciduous and palm trees. A row of four south-facing buildings (1950s-1970s), including the Pine Tree Hotel (1964), front the road. Lawns occupy empty lots and open spaces behind the buildings, which are edged on the northern shore by a thick growth of deciduous trees. A slight drop-off on the southern shore meets the dense reeds and winding waterways of King Flats Creek with borrowed views of Front Coles Island in the distance. 

The Mosquito Beach Historic Site is included in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.