The Pawleys Island SC Lions Club
Pawleys Island, SC
Where We Live, Work, Serve, Worship, and Play: The Pawleys Island, SC Area
"Arrogantly Shabby"
That phrase - - "arrogantly shabby" - - is not an attitude; it IS a description of the significant architectural style of the area. The community of Pawleys Island, South Carolina is a combination of late 19th and early 20th century, beautifully restored and preserved homes in an area of recently built, upscale housing developments, golf courses, restaurants, and retail establishments. Fortunately, the new building follows the stylistic example set by the charming older homes in the area. It is normal to see what looks like a beachfront home - - complete with a porch on 3 sides - - occupying a wonderful fairway-side or lakeside lot well inland. One would think that such a home was out of place. However, the folks who build such homes have taken their inspiration from the many existing plantation estate homes. The beachfront homes mimiced the style of the plantation homes, because they had, in the 18th and 19th centuries, common ownership.
Pawleys Island claims to be the oldest resort area in America. Whether or not that's true, early vacationers were distinguished. The South Carolina Lowcountry was home to the most affluent planters on the continent. They didn't grow tobacco, or even cotton. Rice and indigo (used for a blue dye) were the crops of choice. To escape the heat and malaria of their mainland plantations (many of which can still be seen from the river banks), the rice royalty moved their families to "cottages" on Pawleys Island for the summer. Remarkably, some of those cottages are still in use. Nine of them comprise the Pawleys Island "Historic District". There are homes on the rest of the narrow island - - but no stores. Many homes are used, just as in the planters' days, by summer dwellers, and many are the year-round residences of decendents of the early settlers.
Since the 1700's the white sandy beaches of Pawleys Island and Litchfield have been a favorite destination of many generations. This "barefoot paradise" (known as the “Waccamaw Neck”), the permanent home to only 13,000 residents, encompasses a strip of land 20 miles long, stretching from Murrells Inlet on the north to Georgetown on the south, and bordered on the west by the Intracoastal Waterway/Waccamaw River, and the east by the Atlantic Ocean.
Historic Georgetown is only 10 miles south, while the bright neon lights of Myrtle Beach are 20 minutes north. Nearby is Brookgreen Gardens, the finest collection of outdoor sculpture and botanical gardens in the world! Shopping and restaurants are unsurpassed! Once you visit the area, you might decide to call it home! Many folks who first visited this "best-kept secret" have decided to make their permanent home here, and for all the very good reasons mentioned above. How about you?
Other Sources of Information about Pawleys Island and South Carolina.
Please click on any of the "links" shown below to find out more about our community and state!
The Pawleys Island Realty Company
The Pawleys Island Litchfield Business Association
The Pawleys Island, SC Directory
SCIway - The South Carolina Information Highway
Updated: February 1, 2006