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    Myrtle Beach Pavilion
    Myrtle Beach Pavilion
    Myrtle Beach Pavilion
    Ebook185 pages38 minutes

    Myrtle Beach Pavilion

    By Lesta Sue Hardee and Janice McDonald

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    About this ebook

    For almost a century, the heart of Myrtle Beach was defined by a place simply called "the Pavilion." From the original structure built in 1908, the Pavilion was the center of the resort town's growing tourism industry. It was a destination point for anyone coming to the Grand Strand. Here you could stroll the Boardwalk, play arcade games, make faces in fun mirrors, ride rides, dance the Carolina Shag, or sit on a bench and watch everyone else do all of the above. The Pavilion underwent several incarnations. The first ones were wooden and vulnerable, but the final was concrete and seemingly indestructible, standing for nearly 60 years. Hardly an architectural marvel, what the Pavilion lacked in grandeur, it made up for in pure old-fashioned fun. The beloved structure and its rides fell prey to economics and a wrecking ball in 2006.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439641354
    Myrtle Beach Pavilion
    Author

    Lesta Sue Hardee

    Myrtle Beach natives Lesta Sue Hardee and Janice McDonald trace the origins of the Pavilion from its early days as a recreational site for guests of Myrtle Beach�s first hotel, the Sea Side Inn, to its heyday as �the� location for beach activities on the East Coast, and finally to the Pavilion�s Farewell Season.

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      Book preview

      Myrtle Beach Pavilion - Lesta Sue Hardee

      1952.

      INTRODUCTION

      The Myrtle Beach Pavilion stood both figuratively and literally at the center of South Carolina’s premier resort community for almost 60 years. Overlooking the ocean at the site where the town’s first structures were erected in the late 1800s, the Pavilion stood as a monument to Myrtle Beach’s founding as a place for people to get away from it all. Old-fashioned and sometimes a bit hokey, it was a reminder of simpler times. When people thought of Myrtle Beach, they thought of the Pavilion. Any hotel inquiry began with, How far are you from the Pavilion? Any direction started with, If you’re facing the Pavilion.

      While most remember the large golden-bricked structure that stood between Eighth and Ninth Avenue North for almost six decades, there were actually a few other Pavilions along the way, starting as early as 1902. Each was designed to help entertain the town’s guests. And each was grander than the next, as more and more people began to recognize the Pavilion as the central gathering point in Myrtle Beach. Cumulatively, the structures and the amusements that grew up around them helped establish the Grand Strand as one of the top family destinations in the United States. The people of Myrtle Beach and the tourists who came to visit adored the Pavilion and all it symbolized. They thought it would last forever. They were wrong.

      Myrtle Beach was founded on land purchased in the 1890s by partners F. A. Burroughs and Benjamin Grier Collins. F. A.’s son F. G. Burroughs erected the first Pavilion as an annex for the area’s very first hotel, the Sea Side Inn, built in 1901. Built specifically for entertainment, the Pavilion was the local hub of activity until 1920, when it burned to the ground.

      Three years later, a two-story replacement was built, and it was here that people began coming in droves to be a part of a dance that would evolve into something called the Shag. By the time it was rebuilt and expanded again in 1927, the Pavilion was known as a location for shaggers. Those early dancers’ children and their children’s children would come to get some sand in their shoes on the dance floor.

      When fire claimed that building in 1944, Burroughs and Chapin, now operating under the name Myrtle Beach Farms, made plans to construct something sturdier. They turned to local architect James Cooney, who drew up plans for a reinforced concrete structure that could withstand anything, including winds up to 150 miles an hour.

      The building that would become the beloved Myrtle Beach Pavilion was completed in 1948 and was the first structure of its kind along the Grand Strand. This was the Pavilion that endured and saw Myrtle Beach grow to an international tourism destination. It was this Pavilion that withstood hurricanes and the onslaught of thousands of tourists who descended upon it each season. There were face-lifts and expansions, but it stood virtually unchanged for almost six decades before a wrecking ball demolished it in 2006.

      Amusements had become a central part of activities surrounding the Pavilion. While the new building was going up, Myrtle Beach Farms bought out a traveling carnival that had been operating in Conway at the Tobacco Festival and placed it on the land across the boulevard. The rides were up and running by the time the building opened.

      To attract more tourists, the city started the Sun Fun Festival in 1951 as a summer season kick-off. The Miss South Carolina Pageant was held at the Pavilion in 1952, and author Mickey Spillane came in to judge. He fell in love with the area and never left.

      Hurricane Hazel in 1954 proved a turning point for the Pavilion and Myrtle Beach. The Category 4 storm wiped out almost everything on the beachfront except the Pavilion, and as the community rebuilt, the structure stood as a testament to the town’s determination to endure.

      It was during this time that two of the most recognized features of the Pavilion Amusement Park were added: the Baden band organ and the Herschell-Spillman carousel. More rides and more events began drawing larger crowds to the area. The music venue on the second floor of the Pavilion became the place for up-and-coming bands. Beach music reigned supreme.

      Human checker games, air shows, parades, and the world’s biggest sand castle (twice) were only some of the fun that found its way here. For more than a few Sun Fun Festivals, it was against the law to wear anything other than a bathing suit or shorts. Violators would find themselves thrown into jail in a makeshift structure at the Pavilion. Of course, a donation to charity would get them out.

      The dance hall upstairs packed them in for dancing and concerts, regularly selling out its capacity (2,000 seats). In addition to beach music bands, many internationally known groups played here, including Jerry Lee Lewis, the Temptations, Journey, and for one song on one memorable night in 1978, even the Rolling Stones.

      For decades, it was a given that driving by the Pavilion on Ocean Boulevard on any summer night would likely take someone at least 30 minutes to travel the six-block arcade region; this was the ultimate cruise zone. Teenagers would hang from the rails of the Pavilion deck and shout to those below, while others would sing out from the Ferris wheel, which was positioned so that its riders could see across the boardwalk and to the ocean. (By bribing the attendant, a couple could get a moment or two at the top while new riders boarded.) No

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