Names carry stories. They hold the weight of where we've been, the hope of what's to come, and the identity we share in between. Around here, the name Richmond Hill rolls off our tongues every day—we sign it, mail it, and live it. But few pause long enough to ask where it came from, or what it meant before it meant home.

Long before our town was Richmond Hill, it was known by many other names—Ways Station, Cross Roads, Bryan Neck, Hardwicke, St. Philip Parish, and Ogeechee Neck, to name a few. Each title marked a different era, each layer telling part of the story of who we are today.

Bryan County was carved from Chatham and Effingham in 1793, and its early ambitions were as lofty as its live oaks are tall. The town of Hardwicke—named by Georgia's first royal governor, John Reynolds, for his relative Lord Hardwicke—was once destined to be the capital of the colony. Reynolds even called it "a charming situation…the only place fit for the capital."

But the dream of Hardwicke never came to be. The river's winding banks and shallow depths couldn't carry its promise, and Savannah held on to its crown. By the late 1700s, a new settlement known as Cross Roads emerged at the intersection of the Savannah-Darien Stage Road and Bryan Neck Road—today, U.S. 17 and Highway 144.

The coming of the Savannah, Albany & Gulf Railroad in 1856 shifted everything again. When the depot rose on the Ogeechee, it was named for the station master and rice planter whose land the track crossed—William J. Way. "Ways No. 1½," as it was first called, soon became simply Ways Station.

The name fit for a time, carrying our community through Reconstruction, through wars, and into a new century. But by the 1920s, another name—and another visionary—would leave an indelible mark.

When Henry and Clara Ford first arrived in Ways Station, they saw something special here—not just the rivers and rice fields, but the people who worked them. Over two decades, they quietly purchased more than 85,000 acres, built schools, churches, homes, and a hospital, and transformed this quiet coastal corner into a model community.

In 1936, they built their winter home—Richmond—on the site of the old Clay family rice plantation, a graceful mansion overlooking the Ogeechee. The oak-lined drive leading to that bluff is still one of the most photographed stretches in Coastal Georgia.

When the Fords' improvements touched nearly every family in Ways Station, residents wanted to honor them. They proposed renaming the town Fordville or Ford Town. But in typical Ford fashion, Henry declined. He didn't want his own name on it. Instead, the name of his home—Richmond Hill—was chosen. On May 1, 1941, the U.S. Post Office made it official: Ways Station became Richmond Hill.

The Name We Carry Forward

Today, Richmond Hill stands as more than a name. It's a living legacy—of rail lines and rice fields, royal governors and revolutionaries, innovators and dreamers. It's a reminder that places evolve, but their stories endure.

We may say Richmond Hill without thinking, but behind those words lives centuries of grit, grace, and growth. And for those of us who call it home, there's no sweeter sound.