Myrtle Beach Remembered - About this website

NOTE: - this is very much a work in progress! New material is being added all the time, and any pictures or info that you might have would be very much appreciated. Every effort is made to verify this information, but please correct me if something is wrong or incomplete!

This website is an outgrowth of several visits made to Myrtle Beach during the summer of 2006, the last season of the Pavilion and amusement park.

I had lived at the beach all summer, every summer, from the very early 70s until 1984, when I finished school. During the last few years, I worked at Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum, and during the last 2 summers, I lived about 2 blocks from the heart of the downtown district. After that last summer, jobs and other responsibilities kept me away for quite some time- the next time I visited was very briefly in 1995-97, and I hadn't been back again until 2006.

I couldn't believe the news when I heard that the Pavilion would be closing. Its something that I never thought would happen- Myrtle Beach is simply unimagineable without that defining icon. I resolved to make several trips to the beach that summer to see it one last time, and armed with a new camcorder, I would finally take some pictures of it. I never took any pictures or saved anything the entire time I lived down there. I planned that I would put the Pavilion pictures on my personal website.

Several trips were made that summer, and I experienced the Pavilion and the amusement park again after all those years, including the "Last Ride" event. While I was there, I decided to drive around and see all of the other places that I fondly remember from my time at the beach. I was shocked to find very little remaining- in many cases, only a vacant lot or a t-shirt shop replacing it. Even worse, nobody had any idea what had been there just a relatively short time ago, or what happened to it.

I looked next to the web. Even using Google, it was very hard to find any information about many Myrtle Beach attractions- that had once been very popular years ago. What little that existed was very scattered, often just short off-hand references in forums. Very early in the investigation of these, I found that old postcards were available of some of them- frequently the only remaining pictures and information.

What came of that- following up on my own memories, as well as an ever-expanding web of connections reaching back to the very beginnings of Myrtle Beach, was a much bigger picture of a growing and evolving city, that has undergone tremendous change over its historically short lifetime. The shock I experienced at the loss of these fondly-remembered places is just business as usual in Myrtle Beach. These places are not only gone, but forgotten all too quickly- something that I wanted to change, at least for my own curiosity.

I'm very gratified to have found the answer to many of those treasured memories- and I'm surprised to find that things weren't always quite the way I thought I remembered. Myrtle Beach has a way of making a big impression on people, whether you are a tourist, a local, or somewhere in-between. My experiences there were something I'll always remember, and I'm hearing from scores of people who feel the same way. The pictures and information that are compiled on this website have struck a nerve with many people as it has with me, so that when you take your next visit to MB, and are similarly shocked at the (not always good) change, at least there is a place where the Myrtle Beach that we remember- still exists. I'm not trying to sound anti-progress; I know that nothing lasts forever, and this counts double in Myrtle Beach. In fact, many of the things that I remember wouldn't have been there unless something else had been torn down first.

If you have any pictures or info, please CONTACT ME!!! I would love to add any extra material that you might have!

Wayne Aiken
htomc42@hotmail.com
PO Box 30904
Raleigh, NC 27622-0904