Real estate on the island is far too pricey for the construction of this type of commercial structure today, though no doubt many residents would love to once again walk over to the pavilion for a cold beer and to listen to some beach music. Today, annual spring festivals in Pawleys Island celebrate the summers spent at this last pavilion. Unfortunately, in June 1970 the pavilion was burned down by an arsonist, and many suspected it was because some area residents feared the pavilion was becoming too popular, and as such was drawing in too many outsiders and starting to attract the “wrong crowd.” Though there were plans to convert a nearby structure into what would have been a fifth pavilion, area residents who had apparently had enough of the crowds and traffic bought that structure and razed it. One of the most interesting attributes of this building was that both customers and band members were invited to sign their names on the building, which explains the ubiquitous graffiti in photographs taken in the 1960s. The Drifters, Monzas, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, Catalinas, Embers, Esquires and many others drew large crowds who enjoyed good music, cold beer and a safe place to relax and have a memorable summer evening. From 1960 until 1970, many bands familiar to aficionados of Carolina beach music played the pavilion. The large wooden structure had a spacious dance floor and booths around the walls, and soon it became the place to be on the south end of the coast. This building was funded by a group of locals, and Georgetown Senator James Morrison even had the triangle road built at the site to provide a location for the building. It was after this pavilion burned down in 1957 that the most famous pavilion of them all was built in 1960, the pavilion on the marsh at the North Causeway. This third pavilion, built near the South Causeway and known as the Lafayette Pavilion, would be a mainstay of summer activity on the island. Bands would play during the summer, but it wasn’t until the third pavilion was built in 1935 that the bands became an integral part of the nightlife of the Pawleys Pavilion. This simple structure, with wooden floors and no restrooms, was just north of the first pavilion. Eventually this pavilion was converted to a cottage, and a second pavilion was built nearby in 1925. The main activities at the pavilion were dancing and drinking, and local legend has it that even during Prohibition you could enjoy an alcoholic libation if you knew the right people and the price was right. The island’s first pavilion was built in the early 1900s and was simply a wooden structure located among the dunes north of South Causeway. The pavilion was so revered, and its mention evokes so much nostalgia, that even today annual festivals are held and hundreds of people gather to celebrate just the memory of the pavilion-even though no pavilion has existed in Pawleys in any form since the 1970s. Unique as one of few old Grand Strand landmarks whose memory hasn’t vanished with its physical structure is the Pawleys Island Pavilion (or Pavilions, as the case really stands). Four of the most prominent of these landmarks which bear revisiting are the Pawleys Island Pavilion, the Washington Park Racetrack, Hurl Rocks and the Myrtle Beach Prisoner of War Camp. But over the years-often in the name of progress-landmarks and buildings have been swept away, razed or covered over, even though today we wish they could have been preserved. When people think about the Grand Strand, tourism and vacations are probably the first things that come to mind, so it’s easy to forget that this area has a rich and varied history.
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