...there is a traffic circle right in the middle of Porcher Drive
which is near the northern end of Ocean Drive? It’s the
only traffic circle on the Grand Strand.(Update: There are
other traffic circles now, but this is the first one.) If you look
at a map of Myrtle Beach you’ll see that it’s in a very
odd location, and, you might be wondering, why it’s there.
Well, it’s because this was the place to see and be seen from
1930 until 1974. “Hmmm, what was here?”, you may be
asking. A BIG, luxurious hotel was here,
that’s what! It was called the Ocean Forest Hotel.
In 1926, John T. Woodside of Greenville, SC a textile magnate,
came to Myrtle Beach and bought almost 65,000 acres of land from
Myrtle Beach Farms for $950,000. It’s difficult to picture
just how large this property purchase was. To help with that,
consider that the city of Myrtle Beach is almost 14,500 acres or
22.5 square miles. That means that the property was about 4.5 times
larger than the city or about 101 square miles! His long range plan
for this property was to build an oceanside resort, called Arcady,
which would lure the rich and famous. It would include everything
from hunting and fishing to equestrian sports and, of course,
golf.
The Ocean Forest Hotel was built on a four-mile stretch of
beachfront; the 27 hole golf course was built a few miles inland.
The hotel was completed and opened in January 1930, but the 1929
stock market crash had taken a toll on Mr. Woodside and he was
ruined. Before defaulting on the hotel and golf course, he was able
to spin those properties off and managed to hold on to them. The
rest of his holdings had reverted back to Myrtle Beach Farms by
1933. On Friday, September 13, 1974 the grand hotel was razed after
years of neglect by a succession of owners.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the traffic circle. The traffic
circle was on the land side of the hotel, as seen in the photo
below, and that’s all that remains of the hotel. When you are
retrieving the cache, look toward the ocean and try to imagine the
magnificent Ocean Forest Hotel…it must have been something
to see.
,/p>
You can read more about the hotel here, then click "Places" and
drill down the page to "Ocean Forest Hotel" and click there.