The Pavilion, and the Amusement Park That Made Myrtle Beach

For most of the twentieth century, this stretch of Ocean Boulevard was the heart of Myrtle Beach, because this is where the Pavilion stood. The amusement park grew almost by accident. In the nineteen forties, a traveling carnival set up near the oceanfront and simply never left.

The Pavilion Amusement Park opened on the oceanfront in nineteen forty eight and became the anchor of the whole resort, generations of families measuring their summers by its lights and its wooden coaster. At its center turned a carousel built in nineteen twelve by the Herschell Spillman company, a rare menagerie ride carved not just with horses but with frogs, lions, zebras, and dragons. It is one of only about fifteen working carousels of its kind left in the country.

Then, in two thousand six, the owner, Burroughs and Chapin, announced the season would be its last. The park closed that September, and the oceanfront rides were demolished. But the old carousel and its band organ were saved and moved inland to Broadway at the Beach, where the frogs and dragons still go around.

Ask anyone who grew up on the Grand Strand, and they can still hear it.