MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.-
On a fading afternoon as summer wanes, a small girl looks anxiously into the Haunted Hotel, trying to decide whether she will risk entering the ride where a sign promises "Doom Service Available."
A cool breeze brushes in from the ocean as a middle-aged woman waves to a friend snapping her picture as she rides a zebra on the Pavilion Carousel. Down the way, past lemonade stands, the log flume and ring toss games, teenagers shriek as they spin on swings high in the air. And across Ocean Boulevard, older folks, seeking quiet and reliving memories, sit on a balcony overlooking the street.
These are the sights and sounds of the final summer of a piece of Americana. After nearly a century, the Myrtle Beach Pavilion is closing, and along with it the amusement park that has been part of the fabric of this oceanside resort for more than 50 years.
"It's just awful they are tearing the place down. It's sad," said Matt Blankenship, 25, of Roanoke, Va., who brought his 5-year-old daughter Clarissa to the park. "I remember coming down here with my grandparents when I was about her age, and my parents came here when they were kids."
Generations from the Carolinas, Georgia and beyond spent summer nights dancing to a jukebox, and later live bands; screaming as they braved the heights of the roller coaster; or simply watching the delighted faces as their children rang the bells on the boat ride.
"When I think of Myrtle Beach, this is what I think of, this is what Myrtle Beach is," said Jane Turpin, of Siler City, N.C. "When this is gone, what are people going to remember about Myrtle Beach?"
The Pavilion is a victim of changing times and changing tastes.
"There are not enough people loving it economically," said Tim Ruedy, vice president of operations for the sports, entertainment and recreation division of Burroughs & Chapin Co., which operates the Pavilion. "All things have to be supported, and for the last number of years, it just hasn't been financially viable."
Many visitors are getting older and likely don't want a spin on a roller coaster. To younger children, used to video games and computers, the rides seem quaint, he said.
The carousel dates from 1912, while the park's 2-ton pipe organ was first exhibited at the 1900 World Exposition in Paris.
"For a lot of people that is wonderful, but for a 10-year-old born in 1996, they don't care," Ruedy said.
"Although the Pavilion helped Myrtle Beach to grow, Myrtle Beach has outgrown the Pavilion," he said. "There are a lot more things to see and do, and it is a much more competitive market."
The first Pavilion opened in 1908 and was a wooden structure used for entertainment and dancing. It burned in 1920 and another was built. That one burned in 1944, and the existing reinforced concrete structure–which survived Hurricanes Hazel and Hugo–was built four years later.
That same year, a traveling carnival was purchased by Burroughs & Chapin, creating the Pavilion amusement park. The last rides at the Pavilion will run on Sept. 30.
Ruedy said some of them may end up at other Burroughs & Chapin properties–the company operates the Broadway at the Beach shopping and entertainment complex across town–and the carousel and pipe organ also will find new homes.
Plans for the 11 acres of valuable real estate in the heart of downtown have not been set. The company is working with the city and other landowners on a renewal project that will involve about 300 acres.
"It won't be like Myrtle Beach anymore," said 62-year-old Brenda Woodle, of Norwood, N.C. "Everything is going to high rises and stuff like that."
Woodle remembers as a teenager leaving home in North Carolina late at night for the trip to the coast.
"We'd park on the strip and visit the Pavilion until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning," she said. "If we got tired, we'd go out to the car and sleep–you could sleep in the car at night back then–and at daylight we'd get up and go to the beach."
Trip Hatley, 53, of Rome, Ga., was taking pictures of the Pavilion before it is demolished. He grew up in North Carolina and hung out there.
"The first summer job I ever had was in North Myrtle Beach," he said. "A friend and I drove down after graduation, and I worked at a little cinema house there. We stayed in a little one-bedroom room for 12 bucks a week."
His fondest memory?
"Probably bringing my kids down and watching them on the rides and going through the horror house and the fun they were having at an age when I was doing the same thing," he said.
No one understands the public's sense of loss better than Ruedy.
"It's one of those things where you want things to be that wonderful moment in time forever," he said. "But you can't have that forever. A memory is what you have. We can't take away your memories. The place may not be there, but the memories still reside with you."
——
If You Go …
GETTING THERE: The Myrtle Beach International Airport serves as the commercial airport for the area and is located on the south end of Myrtle Beach, approximately one mile from the Atlantic Ocean. It is accessible from U.S. Highway 17.
MYRTLE BEACH PAVILION: or 843-913-5200. The park is located on Ocean Boulevard and is open Sept. 1-4, 8-10, 16-17, 23-24 and Sept. 30. Times vary. Entry to the park is free. All-day ride passes are available: children ages 3-6 and senior citizens, $15.95 plus tax; adults and children older than 6, $24.95 plus tax; go-karts not included. Rides require between two and five tickets. Ticket packs cost $35 for 40 or $50 for 60. An individual ride ticket is $1.
OTHER AREA ATTRACTIONS: Myrtle Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau: or 800-356-3016.
OTHER SOUTH CAROLINA DESTINATIONS: State Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism:
