Myrtle Beach is only 100 years old. What’s more, every generation or so it gets bulldozed away and rebuilt with bigger and grander hotels, shops and amusements. In fact, there is not a single historical marker in the town of Myrtle Beach. Nothing lasts long enough to become historical in one of the fastest-growing municipal areas in the United States.
I started vacationing with my family in Myrtle Beach in the 1950s and continued going there regularly through my college years. To discover what has been gained and what has been lost in nearly half a century, I moved to the Grand Strand in 1999. My joys and sorrows are recorded in my new book, “Banana Republic: A Year in the Heart of Myrtle Beach” (Frontline Press; $24.95).
The Ocean Forest Hotel – once the grandest hotel between Atlantic City, N.J., and Miami Beach – went down in a dynamite demolition in 1974. Sloppy Joe’s, the legendary 24-7 Ocean Boulevard hash house, became fodder for bulldozers in the 1980s. Scores of mom-and-pop hotels and restaurants have been consigned to postcards and family photo albums. Looking for memories in Myrtle Beach today can be discouraging, indeed.
But if you know where to go and what to look for, it is still possible to find some of old Myrtle Beach. And Ocean Boulevard is a good place to start.
PAVILION AMUSEMENT PARK
Located between 8th and 9th avenues north, the 11-acre amusement park overlooking the beach is sacred in the memory of millions. It dates back to 1948, when Earl Husted brought his carnival rides to Myrtle Beach and parked them permanently on the boulevard.
Today, the Pavilion Amusement Park offers 40 rides, including the Hurricane Category 5, the largest roller coaster in South Carolina. But for many, the Pavilion’s greatest treasure is the 2-ton band organ, built in Waldkirsch, Germany, in 1900. It features 400 pipes and 18 lifelike figures, 12 of which move. The whole thing is driven by hand-punched cardboard scrolls fed through the player mechanism, and can be heard nightly during the summer. There is also the Hershell-Spillman carousel, dating from the early 1900s, with its 27 hand-carved wooden animals and two chariots. I count myself among the untold thousands who took his first amusement park ride on this grand old carousel.
(Admission: The Pavilion Amusement Park is free. Hours: 1 p.m.-midnight daily, through Aug. 15; shorter hours thereafter. The park operates March-September. Rides (unlimited use, one day): $23.95; ages 7-54; $14.88 for ages 3-6 and 55 and older, 2 and younger, free. Details: (843) 913-5200.)
PEACHES CORNER
Diagonally across 8th Avenue North from the Pavilion is an even older institution. Peaches Corner has been serving hot dogs and cold beer since the early 1940s at its long Formica counter and swivel stools. Whenever I’m in Myrtle Beach during “the season,” I stop by for a foot-long with slaw and chili and a cold draft. It’s more than a meal. It’s a memory.
(Peaches Corner is open March-October. Hours: 11 a.m.-1 or 2 a.m. most days. Details: (843) 448-7424.)
GAY DOLPHIN GIFT COVE
A couple of doors north of Peaches Corner is the Gay Dolphin, at 910 Ocean Blvd., billed as the largest gift and souvenir shop on the East Coast, featuring thousands of items on three floors, including its famous collection of sharks’ teeth and countless household items and body adornments made of seashells and inscribed with “Myrtle Beach.” Climb the Gay Dolphin’s famous Glass Tower – once the tallest structure on the Boulevard – for a lofty look at the Grand Strand. The Gay Dolphin has been open since 1948 and is still open year-round, seven days a week.
(Gay Dolphin hours: 9:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday. Details: (843) 448-6550; www.gaydolphin.com.)
MRS. FISH
While you are in the neighborhood, walk up to Broadway in the old commercial district and see what Myrtle Beach looked like circa 1960. Then walk into Mrs. Fish, at 919 Broadway, and see what local seafood restaurants looked like 40 years ago. In a town that boasts dozens of Calabash seafood houses, some of which seat up to 800, and buffets with more than 100 items, Mrs. Fish offers one small counter, a half dozen tables and some of the best seafood anywhere, prepared one order at a time. Many Myrtle Beach residents already hate me for some things I wrote about their town in “Banana Republic.” Now they will hate me again for telling the world about one of their favorite secret restaurants.
(Mrs. Fish hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, closed Sundays. Details: (843) 946-6869.)
FISHING PIERS
There are seven fishing piers along the Grand Strand, from Cherry Grove Pier, on the north end, to Garden City Pier, on the south. Most of these piers have been blown down at one time or another, by one storm or another. But they always come back, because a great pier satisfies something primal in the landlubber’s soul.
Of course, you don’t have to be an angler to enjoy a pier. I don’t know which end of a fishing rod to hold, but I spent countless hours – sometimes with a friend, sometimes alone – feeling the wind in my hair and the sun on my face, as I walked the piers, talking to fishermen, reading, writing, encountering other writers and artists who come to the piers to feel the energy and exhilaration of the sea.
All of the piers offer restaurants, which range from sandwich shops to fine dining. Some have outdoor bars and ice cream stands. Most charge pedestrians 50 cents for a stroll. It’s the best four bits you will spend in Myrtle Beach.
The piers are open spring through autumn.
Cherry Grove Pier, 3500 N. Ocean Blvd., North Myrtle Beach; (843) 249-1625; www.cherrygrovepier.com. Hours: open 24 hours a day, through September or mid-October; closed in winter. $1 to walk on pier; $6 per rod per day to fish.
Apache Pier, 9700 Kings Road, Myrtle Beach; (800) 553-1749, toll-free. Hours: 8 a.m.-7 p.m. daily; $2 to walk on pier; $6.50 per day to fish; pier has restaurant, game room, nightly entertainment, etc.
Second Avenue Pier, 110-B N. Ocean Blvd., Myrtle Beach; (843) 626-8480. Hours: 7 a.m.-11 p.m. daily; 50 cents to walk on pier; $7 per day to fish; pier has ice cream stand, arcade, restaurant, etc.
Springmaid Pier, 3200 S. Ocean Blvd., Myrtle Beach; (800) 770-6895 toll-free. Hours: 6 a.m.-midnight daily; free to walk on pier; $7 per day to fish; pier has shops, restaurant, etc.
Myrtle Beach State Park, 4401 S. Kings Highway, Myrtle Beach; (843) 238-5325. Hours: 6 a.m.-10 p.m. daily; $3 park admission ($1.75 for any S.C. resident who is disabled and for S.C. residents 65 and older); 15 and younger, free.
Surfside Pier, 11 S. Ocean Blvd., Surfside Beach, (843) 238-0121. Hours: 6 a.m.-midnight daily; $1 to walk on pier; $7.50 per day to fish; pier has a shelter.
Garden City Pier, 110 S. Waccamaw Drive, Garden City, S.C., (843) 651-9700. Hours: 6 a.m.-1 or 2 a.m.; open all night for anglers; free to walk on pier; $7.50 to fish all day, $3.50 for 11 and younger; pier has bar and restaurant on side pier; bar and dance floor on main pier (country band 4 p.m.-midnight daily).
BROOKGREEN GARDENS
Part of the romance of Brookgreen Gardens is that it was created in the 1920s by railroad heir Archer Huntington as a showplace for the work of his wife, famed sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington. Part of the romance is to walk through the sprawling gardens, waterways and pavilions of Brookgreen today and marvel at the 550 works, from hundreds or artists, assembled in the largest outdoor display of figurative sculpture in America.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Brookgreen Gardens is 18 miles south of Myrtle Beach, on U.S. 17.
(Brookgreen Gardens, U.S. 17 South, Pawleys Island, S.C. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily; extended hours – to 9 p.m. Wednesday-Friday – through Aug. 20. Admission: $12; $10 for ages 13-18 and 65 and older; 12 and younger, free. Details: (800) 849-1931, toll-free; www.brookgreen.org.)
ATALAYA CASTLE
Even lovers must sleep. For his wife, Huntington also built Atalaya Castle, where the two stayed when they wintered on the Carolina coast. Atalaya, overlooking the gray Atlantic, was designed by Huntington and inspired by the Moorish architecture of the Spanish Mediterranean. The outer walls of Atalaya form a square, 200 feet on each side, surrounding a courtyard and 40-foot tower. The living quarters consist of 30 rooms around three sides of the perimeter.
(Atalaya Castle is today part of Huntington Beach State Park, across U.S. 17 from Brookgreen Gardens. Hours: 6 a.m.-10 p.m. daily (shorter hours in fall). Admission: $5; $3.25 for any S.C. resident who is disabled and for S.C. residents 65 and older; $3 for ages 6-15; 5 and younger, free. Details: (843) 237-4440.)
