First look at home Tyler Perry promised Hilton Head grandma during fight against developers

Contractors installed the house that Tyler Perry promised Hilton Head grandmother Josephine Wright, concluding her family’s nationally publicized fight to retain their Gullah land and affirming their commitment to living on the island.

In a little over a year, the Wright family went from fearing they would lose their land to building a home there, following a lawsuit Wright believed was a financial bullying tactic to force a land sale she refused multiple times.

The family and Perry’s team customized a manufactured home model called the “Big Easy,” adding granite counter tops, higher-quality insulation, permanent foundation, tabby shell skirting, and a porch, according to Madison Aust at Palmetto Homes of Beaufort, which is the manufactured home dealer working on the project. They also converted the model into five bedrooms instead of four.

“It’s a really high-grade home,” Aust said, explaining that they’re still working on some of the upgrades and landscaping. With an end-date in sight, she said they’re hopeful the Atlanta-based actor, writer and producer will come to Hilton Head for the home’s completion.

She said Perry’s team contacted Palmetto Homes of Beaufort in August. Six months later, at the end of February, Palmetto Homes of Beaufort delivered and installed the pre-constructed home from its depot in Beaufort. It will last for decades, according to its website, which says manufactured homes have an average lifespan of 30 to 55 years.

Wright didn’t just see the homes on a website. She walked through manufactured home options before her death at 94 in January , according to Aust. Before installation and customization, the model sells for $180,000 on builder Clayton Homes’ website.

It’s a much different situation than the family was in about a year ago, when Bailey Point Development sued Wright over parts of her property, including a shed and a back porch, that allegedly crossed the parcel’s boundary line. Wright previously told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette she suspected the company hoped litigation would financially force them to sell the land, which is surrounded by Bailey Point’s planned 147-housing-unit development.

Gullah land loss isn’t uncommon on Hilton Head. Following the Civil War, formerly enslaved African descendants called Gullah Geechee purchased and owned over 3,500 acres of land on the island. This group included Wright’s husband’s descendants, and now their families own fewer than 700 acres, according to Lowcountry Gullah, a nonprofit focused on Gullah land preservation. It’s a difference between 14% of Hilton Head’s 26,880 acres of land at the height of ownership and less than 2.6% now.

Since developers sued Wright in February 2023, Perry promised to foot the bill for a new home, both parties settled the lawsuit and the new home is on its way to completion. Wright said the family home mentioned in the lawsuit will remain on the land, next to the new home in a December interview with The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.

“On this island, in the past, they have been able to frighten off people that own property with little things like lawsuits,” she said in the interview. “It was just my determination that my husband’s hard work and his family’s work was not going to go to waste.”

The family established The Josephine Wright Foundation with the over $350,000 donated to its GoFundMe, including money from celebrities such as Kyrie Irving and Snoop Dogg, to help Gullah landowners retain their property.

The Wright family isn’t speaking with media at this time, according to family spokesperson Altimese Nichole.