A QUICKLY Growing Historic South Carolina Small Town Near The Beach 

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My mother was born in Conway in 1937; the place where they lived near downtown was still on a dirt road at that time. She remembers when there was only one significant hotel at Myrtle Beach. If they wanted to do some serious shopping, they had to drive to Charleston. I still have cousins who live in Conway and have thought about moving there at some point when I retire.

At the 14:20 mark of the video, you drive through a traffic light intersection with a Hardees on the corner, and immediately after to the right is the location of the local shopping mall called Coastal Centre - you can see its' entrance sign on the right as the camera moves past the pick-up truck pulling the RV camper. It has a Belk's retail store as the primary chain store landmark, which it seems it has had since the mall first opened decades ago. Coastal Centre has diminished in stature from what it once was, which is no different for most major shopping malls in the region: there used to almost seem like there were as many huge shopping brick and mortar stores littering all over the Grand Strand area, as there once were golf courses. Now most of those stores have vanished along with the amusement parks, movie cinema super-plexes and other tourism attractions. The reason why I bring up the tiny Coastal Centre mall in Conway: Myrtle Beach was originally the vision of Franklin Burroughs, the patriarch of the Burroughs and Collins Company. Burroughs worked on the local Waccamaw river manufacturing turpentine, a distilled resin product derived from pine trees. In the days of wooden sail boats as the primary naval craft, turpentine was used as tarnish or tar pitch to treat the white oak planks of sailboats and other naval craft, as well as used to make paint thinner and other solvents. The turpentine industry flared up very quickly along the Waccamaw and Bull Creek Rivers of Horry County, and very briefly threatened to make the Conway area into a thriving mini-economy. The small community of Bucksport, which resides just outside and to the south of Conway on the way to Georgetown, essentially grew straight out of the turpentine industry, and once was the location of several well-off families who ventured into the industry. The turpentine product would be loaded onto ferry boats along the Waccamaw and Bull Creek Rivers, and ferried up to North Carolina. Franklin Burroughs initially came from North Carolina, out of Martin County. Once in Conway, Burroughs envisions the coastal region of what became known as Myrtle Beach as a tourist resort destination. There was no railroad line at the time, and very little roadways that amounted to little more than wagon trails. A handful of families received land grants for large tracts of land along the coastal region prior to the American Revolution, and after the colonies gained independence, there was a devastating hurricane in the early 1820's that wiped out most of the few families who chose to settle in the area. They abandoned the land, so when Burroughs came along he bought much of the land and began to build on his vision, selling timber along with the turpentine, and building a small town infrastructure such as a post office and a mercantile store. Later his company received a charter to build a railroad to Conway to move timber inland - the workers/employees of the railroad company who built the rail line would spend their weekends camping on the beaches and enjoying the amenities. After land was cleared of timber and developed the company would sell plots for future businesses or for beach-side cottages. As this timber, land, and turpentine business thrived, the tiny community village known then as "New town" (as opposed to Conway being referred to as "Old Town"), the railroad was completed around 1900, and more tourists and families had a practical route down to the coastal ocean region, which began to grow and thrive slowly but steadily. Which brings me to Coastal Centre. I can remember when Myrtle Beach was more "resort" than "town". There seemed to be plenty of motels, restaurants, seashell and souvenir shops and gas stations while having fewer year-around residences. And once upon a time there was just one single shopping center at the beach, known as the Chapin Company Shopping Center. Built by Burroughs and Chapin primarily as a mercantile store for its employees and early settlers and residences for Myrtle Beach, the store had limited supply in the way of fashion clothes and finer goods, and more had denim work pants and clothes for farming and outdoor labor, plus more hardy necessities for living in the rudimentary locale. Due to this, I can remember as a child that when Christmas time came, our own little Coastal Centre would become THE focal point for the entire area: Myrtle Beach residences would drive to Conway to come shop at OUR MALL!!! For anyone over the past 40 years or so who are familiar with how Myrtle Beach was such a huge shopping attraction for not only South Carolinian's, but for people who lived several states away who would make it a wintertime vacation just to come down (or up) to shop at the Grand Strand's many colossal malls, to hear this would almost seem like it is a great joke! But I can remember when WE - who lived in Conway just a few blocks away from the Coastal Centre - would drive all through the parking lot of that tiny mall for our Christmas shopping to find an open parking spot, because it was so packed with cars. And if we did our shopping too late, the shelves would be cleared out of many items we may wish to buy for gifts. And we didn't have much else to go shopping at, at the time. OUR little mall was IT! Of course, that s all faded history that seemingly only exists in my memories today - much like that Chapin Company Shopping Center, that you can't find much about anywhere on the internet these days, but which was once THE main shopping mall of Myrtle Beach in a much simpler, quieter time. Then the rest is history: Burroughs and Collins, who is now Burroughs and Chapin, builds the new Pride of Myrtle Beach in 1975, with the state of the art Myrtle Square Mall. I was 10 yrs old at the time. That mall was the precursor to what most remember about Myrtle Beach these days - huge shopping complexes every 10 miles up and down the Grand Strand - Murrells Inlet Mall, Waccamaw Pottery Outlet, Briarcliffe Mall. Myrtle Square Mall was the Granddaddy. Now, all of those great malls mentioned are no more, replaced by Coastal Grand Mall, Broadway at the Beach, The Market Commons. Conway may not have a great economy grade, but really, it never will. That's just not what Conway is, nor really is it what South Carolina has traditionally been. People call the area we live in the "Bible Belt", but its really true for our area. I can remember when the first eating establishment applied for the very first liquor license in the Conway city limits - boy, was there a big stink over that one. I had already graduated from high school when that happened - they got their license, but there was some drama over that one. Conway has traditionally been about agriculture - mostly tobacco, cotton, and corn - and the closest "industry" that existed around here was textile business. And of course for the coastal area the tourism industry - hotel-motel, restaurants, shopping, amusement. The local leaders and community planners have never seemed more inclined to plan for more than that over the years, if not generations. If you're looking for more than that, then you're going to have to move out of this area, and perhaps return when you choose to retire, and then go golfing.........

Heck yeah, my hometown! I got to say pretty much most people grow up, poor, including myself, but I’ll be damn there’s some good people in Conway! Plus if you like outdoor activities like hunting fishing, riding, four wheelers, etc. you’ll fit in around there! But I gotta say Pawleys Island is a very beautiful part of the beach, and there’s significantly less people than Myrtle, so I think you’ll dig that place!

Excellent analysis and the video really really captures what an inland coastal plain SC town is like. Have not been to this town but have been to many like it. Really like your drone work near the end which ties together the whole effect. You really excel with multimedia.

Thanks for pronouncing Horry correctly

While you were driving through some of the neighborhoods, I like the way the street curved around to miss the old trees, (9:33) (9:45) (10:06) and (10:13) just to show a few. Besides the flooding it looks like a nice place.....

I don't think Conway will achieve the place it had 20-30 years ago. That area, and on down to Georgetown, lost a lot of factory work resultant of NAFTA. Things never picked up again like before. I'm from a town about an hour away from this area, and that town had dealt with the same decline. And, as someone else mentioned, thanks for pronouncing "Horry" correctly. 😂🙏

I'm sure you had this idea on your own. But I'm glad see somebody doing something that I suggested years ago. That was drive around and showed people places that they probably would never get to . Then you do it with your twist describing different subdivisions of the cities and so forth, you're doing a great job.

I enjoyed this video. Cute little town.😊❤

Nice video. I'd like to see this filmed during the spring when all the trees and flowers are blooming.

I really enjoyed the ride along video. That small town is beautiful and clean. My imagination was running wild. Keep up the nice work.

AYYYE my hometown

Conway is decent for those who like the beach but just don't want to live right up the beach,Horry County is popular with retirees escaping the cold weather and high home prices, taxes especially property taxes from up north and even California. For someone on a fixed income or a remote worker you get more bang for your buck.Some jokingly say that this area is the most Northern part of Florida with palm trees and gators and those gecko lizards,it does have that Florida feel to it,northern Florida anyway,a little bit cooler,every few years you might get a small dusting of snow but that's about it.

Looks like a good place to retire to, except for the summer heat and humidity of being in a coastal plane. As for industry, if one doesn't want to live in the NC Research Triangle but still wants to work in the tech industry, maybe telework is the answer - occasional travel to the research triangle, but live closer to the beach in Conway.

Conway looks like an attractive retirement destination. I have started to look at South Carolina over Florida due to the fact that real estate has gotten outrageously expensive. Hope to relocate out of Chicago to the south east within the next few years.

We're a day late and a dollar short :-(. This video made me curious about Conway for retirement relocation. Looking at Trulia, the median values for single family appear closer to $275K - 300K. That's still affordable for many, but the $170K days are past. It's a hot market.

My brother lives in Conway. I love Conway

Love conway! I live in Murrells inlet love shopping there I just don't like the traffic.! Homes are high concerning the average income .

My daughter was born in Conway.

We are thinking about retiring and looking in the conway or little river

Here come the Yankees.

ain't that beach town the one they call murder beach? asked a transplant why they say welcome to hell, he says coz it's hot as hell in da summa. I see what he means.

why do you have to say dirty Myrtle...

As your driving video shows, there's nothing much to Conway other than Coastal Carolina University and the Conway Medical Center. (Both of which you didn't show.) Just another small Southern town with crap dollar stores. Not much industry or anything much else to speak of. Just like the hundred-year-old dying small towns in New Jersey like Riverside and Mount Holly. Let's face it; the action is along the beach. If I went to Ocean City, Maryland, I sure wouldn't care about visiting Snow Hill for a day trip. Not dissin' on Conway, but...um...yeah, I am. Maybe your next video should be on Lake City or Dillon.

Dirty Myrtle