Janice Mcdonald

Myrtle Beach Pavilion (Images of America) Janice Mcdonald

For almost a century, the heart of Myrtle Beach was defined by a place simply called "the Pavilion." From the original structure built in 1908, the Pavilion was the center of the resort town's growing tourism industry. It was a destination point for anyone coming to the Grand Strand. Here you could stroll the Boardwalk, play arcade games, make faces in fun mirrors, ride rides, dance the Carolina Shag, or sit on a bench and watch everyone else do all of the above. The Pavilion underwent several incarnations. The first ones were wooden and vulnerable, but the final was concrete and seemingly indestructible, standing for nearly 60 years. Hardly an architectural marvel, what the Pavilion lacked in grandeur, it made up for in pure old-fashioned fun. The beloved structure and its rides fell prey to economics and a wrecking ball in 2006.