Living Here | Amuse yourself at myriad Grand Strand museums

Anytime is perfect to take count of the many dynamic local museums across the Grand Strand.

The choices to amuse yourself in history, scenery and art – inside and out – remain abundant all year round.

Museums have made news on the north and south Strand in the past year. The Georgetown County Museum, begun by the Georgetown County Historical Society in 2005, has moved into larger quarters at 120 Broad St., Georgetown, and the North Myrtle Beach Area Historical Museum celebrated its first anniversary April 7.

Walking through the Georgetown County Museum on Jan. 11, the day after its reopening in a building triple the size of the former site on Prince Street, Jill Santopietro looked down, around and up, showing the array of artifacts that fill two floors in helping explain more than three centuries of local history, going beyond the birth of the United States.

The museum’s director paused under the bulk of a canoe secured to the ceiling after its unearthing from the Waccamaw River. She said with help from personnel from the Horry County Museum in Conway, the 17-foot-long cypress wood piece will be carbon dated to reveal more details of its roots.

Upstairs, a glass case holds a letter written in July 1782 by Gen. Francis Marion, a luminary from the American Revolution. A photocopy also lets the viewer see writing on the back side.

On walls nearby, check out the changes in military uniforms between World Wars I and II, and a tribute to the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose area legacies include the Francis Marion State Forest and Myrtle Beach State Park, Santopietro said.

Another case contains a marching band uniform from the former Winyah Junior High School and a letter jacket from Howard High School, together which now make up Georgetown High School.

Santopietro said the new museum, among many other historic places to visit in downtown Georgetown fits in the timetable for anyone who wants to spend time in the county seat, for shopping, lunching and sightseeing into a rich past.

“It’s a great day trip,” Santopietro said.

Jenean Neilsen Todd emoted equal enthusiasm about the North Myrtle Beach Area Historical Museum, for which she is director. During a stroll through the site, she summarized “bits and pieces” of the various “Snapshots” of a larger community that stretches as far south as the Myrtle Beach mall area, west to Longs and north to Little River.

Upon lobby entry to pay admission, some local residents might remember checking out books at the circulation desk in the building’s former use as the North Myrtle Beach branch of the Horry County Memorial Library, which was relocated in 2011 to larger quarters near city hall.

The borders around each section in the galleries flash a truly golden, sandy touch, thanks to resourceful thinking by the city of North Myrtle Beach salvaging some old wooden sand fencing.

Take in some tastes of “Beach Life.” Climb into a white lifeguard’s stand. When scanning various Jack Thompson photos showing the coastline, look at history “that all disappeared with Hurricane Hazel” in 1954, Todd said. She also noted her favorite aerial photo donated by the historian, showing Atlantic Beach, “the Black Pearl” of the area.

Shampoo wash chairs from Cherry Grove Beach’s first beauty salon, owned for many years by Cecilia Campbell, are set up across the museum. Todd said several women this past year have remarked, “I remember sitting under that dryer.”

In the “Education” portion, a collection of seat cushions, including logos from the North Myrtle Beach Chiefs and former Wampee-Little River Indians, along with a class record book – without graded marks – and a majorette uniform and plume that had been stored, looking new out of the box, “really chronicles the community,” Todd said.

Showing a wooden dance floor with shag memories expressed through a two-wall mural of dancers and a quilt, Todd clicked buttons on a restored jukebox full of 45-rpm records, cueing up the Fantastic Shakers’ “Myrtle Beach Days” for some appropriate background grooves.

“People dance here,” Todd said, inviting everyone to step on the floor, and to “see the machine work.”