Port Royal is home to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and United States Naval Hospital Beaufort.

A land rush ensued, and Port Royal was officially incorporated in 1874, 300 years after initial settlement efforts.

The Sea Islands Hurricane of 1893 destroyed much of the phosphate industry and stunted development, but the port continued to operate throughout the 20th century.

The opening of Parris Island as a Marine Corps recruiting station brought some vitality back to the community, though rapid residential growth did not occur until the later decades of the 20th century.

Scheper Store, and Union Church of Port Royal are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Streets running north–south are named after the capitals of nations whose immigrants have settled in the Port Royal area (Paris, London, Madrid, and Edinburgh).

Since the start of the 21st century however, Port Royal began to annex lands west and south of its core area.

The Parris Island Marine Corps Base was annexed on October 11, 2000, effectively doubling the municipal population overnight due to on-base housing.

Port Royal also annexed properties in the Shell Point and Burton areas of Beaufort County.

Challenges were filed, and the 2000 annexation of undeveloped Rose Island was to be heard by the South Carolina Supreme Court in 2005.

[10] In 2006, Port Royal annexed two tracts of land south of the Broad River based on the so-called line-of-sight rule.

Port Royal has expanded in recent times by annexation of parcels of land on the west side of Battery Creek.