Charlie’s Place Project a finalist in Knight Cities Challenge

From the 1930s until its closing in the 1960s, when some of the greatest black artists in the nation popularized swing and boogie, a Myrtle Beach nightclub gained the reputation as the place to be regardless of race.

In a time when it remained taboo for whites and blacks to mingle equally in social atmospheres, Charlie Fitzgerald’s Carver Street supper club welcomed anyone who loved to dance to the sounds of rhythm and blues.

The long ago club that drew New York socialites on vacation in the south to visit the segregated Booker T. Washington neighborhood to hear the likes of Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye and B.B. King has long since faded from the landscape. Only the dilapidated and boarded up Fitzgerald Motel that once housed many of the great black performers while in town and a weathered house remain.

The city of Myrtle Beach saved the little more than one-acre site from developers by purchasing the land late last year. That move came after long-time residents Herbert Riley and Roddy Brown approached the city with hopes of seeing the site memorialized in some way to preserve its cultural history. Riley proposed the idea of a museum to capture the musical history of the area.

Finding financial backing now to move forward with a project the city has named The Charlie’s Place Project, could come through the Knight Cities Challenge, which has selected the project as a finalist in this year’s competition.

Edna Wright, Myrtle Beach’s director of Neighborhood Services, along with program coordinator Sorah Larimer and administrative assistant April Johnson are a group Riley calls “Charlie’s Angels” for their dedication to The Charlie’s Place Project. Wright and Riley feel development of the property could provide a “cultural renaissance and more economic viability” to the community.

“Charlie Fitzgerald helped put Myrtle Beach on the map and to making money,” Riley said. He said during the Jim Crow days of racial segregation, Fitzgerald was the only black man seen eating along with whites in local restaurants. He was respected in both the white and African American communities as a business leader and entrepreneur.

“This was back in the time when that was not supposed to happen; a time when you could get killed mixing black and white,” Riley said.

Fitzgerald’s Motel was listed in the Esso oil corporation’s Green Book, a travel guide that recorded places in the U.S. where blacks could stay. And, while Fitzgerald’s business was admired by many, things changed in 1950 when the Klu Klux Klan raided the joint, shooting up the club and beating Fitzgerald and leaving him for dead on side of the road.

Not one to be knocked down, Fitzgerald recuperated and rebuilt the club that was called Whispering Pines.

Even after that raid, white residents like Dan Gray remember visiting Charlie’s Place in the late 1950s to hear the legendary Little Richard, who sometimes stayed at Fitzgerald’s place for a month at a time, perform for a diverse audience.

Today, however, local youth living in the predominantly black neighborhood know little if any about the Fitzgeralds or the history of the once flourishing music venue that drew top black entertainers on the Chitlin’ Circuit, a list of U.S. venues deemed safe for black entertainers.

Riley, who was born in 1951 and can still remember as a child seeing cars line Carver Street on Saturday nights until early Sunday mornings, and Wright hope to change that.

“Charlie’s Place can be a great piece of history if we do it right,” said Riley, who, along with the others involved in bringing attention to the project say they do not wish to focus on the negative side of history.

Wright said the proposal that was submitted to the Knight Cities Challenge calls for restoring the historic entertainment venue as a hub for selling local produce in a market operated by local residents in the once flourishing neighborhood.

“It’s a project you can put your hands on and touch it,” Wright said. “We believe it will attract a lot more young people, too.”

Wright sees promise for the piece of property. She would prefer to see small business development in the old motel that housed many of the world’s greatest musical legends. If that is not possible due to the condition of the buildings, however, she would like to see some type of replica or commemorative plaques put in place. She visualizes the possibility of a neighborhood grocery and, with the land only a few blocks from the ocean, perhaps a fish market.

“A lot of residents in the Booker T. Washington neighborhood are elderly. This would provide a place for them to go to,” Wright said. There is already a community garden located across the street from the site of the proposed market that could provide produce for sale by residents.

The project would include providing job training and a business plan so the residents could own and operate the grocery store, and youth could get jobs close to home, Wright said.

The project has drawn the attention of a diverse group of people interested in the history of the place including author and journalist Frank Beacham who wrote a book about Charlie’s Place and an inquiry from some television producers. They also include high school teen Azure Allen who created a film about Charlie’s Place called “One Day on Carver Street.” The film won first place in the Columbia Jewish Film Festival High School Short Film Contest and has been entered in an international contest. It can be viewed on the Charlie’s Place Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/charliesplaceoncarverstreet.

This is the second year in a row a Myrtle Beach project is among those selected as finalists in the grant challenge set up by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Charlie’s Place Project was chosen as one of 158 finalists from a pool of 4,500 applicants across the nation.

Submissions came from nonprofit and government agencies, as well as design experts, urban planners and individuals all with unique concepts that would enhance their cities.

Only the 26 communities such as Myrtle Beach where the Knight family once operated newspapers are eligible to apply. Applications must focus on three concepts: projects that would help cities attract and keep the best and brightest talent; opportunities to expand economic prospects while breaking down divides; and engaging residents in civic involvement.

Lilly Weinberg, program director for community foundations, manages a portfolio of 18 community foundations partnering in Horry County with Waccamaw Community Foundation.

Weinberg said Knight Cities Challenge is a three-year, $15 million grant program that began in 2015.

In its initial year, $5 million in grants was divided among 32 winning projects. While an iconic bike loop project submitted by the city of Myrtle Beach was among the finalists last year, the project did not get challenge grant funded.

Finalists have until the end of January to submit a more detailed application to share more about why their projects are unique. Finalizing the application calls for a quick turnaround in what Weinberg calls a stiff competition. However, she said she would help participants complete their submissions by making phone calls to help “set them up for success.”

Weinberg said the Myrtle Beach project is intriguing because it is an historic site. “It is fascinating to us to take something with history and transform it into a place where neighbors can gather, where it also offers economic opportunity and potentially breaking down barriers with economic divides.

“It is really exciting that Myrtle Beach has this entry. It is a small community compared to others,” she said.

Winners of the 2016 Knight Cities Challenge will be announced sometime in the spring.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Charlie’s Place Project a finalist in Knight Cities Challenge."