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North Myrtle Beach High School
The History of North Myrtle Beach High School and Its Predecessor High Schools

by

Various Students, Teachers and Interested Community Members

A brief history of the community and the school was compiled by the following students in Mr. Havens’ 1997 AMPS class: Walt Floyd, Lisa Gabriel, Anna Harrell, Meredith Hart, Lee Jones, Shelly Muzika, Falissa Randall, Dawn Temples, and Lauren Wallin.

The community history was drawn from various works of local historians such as C.B. Berry, Blanche Floyd, and Catherine Lewis. Most of the school history was compiled from personal interviews with Jennings Livingston, E.M. Henry, Annie J. Henry, George L. Williams, and Mildred Ward.

Early History

The history of our area is rich in culture, heritage and tradition. The Grand Strand is both historically captivating and presently interesting. The Grand Strand is more than merely a tourist haven; it is an historical place and many useful lessons can be learned from the area’s past.

In 1735, the colonial government formally opened the North Myrtle Beach area for settlement. King George III granted Land in the Cherry Grove area to John Alston. William Allston owned a tract of land in Little River Neck. Kings Highway began as an Indian trail long before Europeans settled along the Grand Strand. This trail became the route from the Northern states to Charleston and Savannah and was once traveled by stagecoach. On President George Washington’s tour to the South, in 1791, he used this route to find lodging in the North Myrtle Beach area. One myth about his time here is that Washington named Windy Hill. Another local legend has it that while stopping on King’s Highway, Washington tied his horse to a young oak tree. Supposedly today, that tree still tilts westward. In an entry in George Washington’s diary, he talks about crossing the "Waggamau." The Waccamaw is a coastal river that adds much to the history of the community.

The plantation system did not take hold in Horry County as it did in most of the South. Most families held small farms and fisheries along the Strand. Before the Civil War, in the area that is now Tilghman Beach, William and Abraham Bessent ran a fishery. During this time people traveled in covered wagons on Wortham's Ferry or at Star Bluff. They camped, sometimes for weeks, on the land owned by local farmers and fishermen. Gradually the landowners realized that this traffic could become a valuable source of income. They built and improved their facilities for the visitors.

Black colonists were among the first settlers in Horry County. They came as slaves, working in the rice fields on Horry’s southern fringe or in the naval stores around Little River. After the Civil War, many former slaves worked small farms while others became fishermen. Horry’s black community made significant contributions to the culture and economy of South Carolina.

Anchoring the Grand Strand and providing much of the area’s early history is Little River, formerly known as Ash’s. The area’s first inhabitants were the Waccamaw and Winyah Indians who named the land "Chicora," meaning "the land." In Little River one may see the "Mineola" used often. This is because it is the Indian word for " little river." An Indian burial mound is located at Waites Island near Little River, off of the Cherry Grove Point. Little River was well established with several businesses, warehouses and a sawmill, but with the expansion of the transportation system, the population declined by 1924. The Grand Strand section of the waterway opened in 1936. In 1938, the completion of the Little River Jetty opened up the Intracoastal Waterway to the Atlantic Ocean and provided more opportunities for fishing and yachting.

The tourism business did not begin to develop until the 1900’s. The beaches of Horry were virtually uninhabited due to the county’s geographical inaccessibility and poor economy. At the turn of the century, the Burroughs & Collin Company, a timber-turpentine firm who owned extensive beach front property, began developing the resort potential of the Strand. In 1900, their company constructed a railroad to the beach from the Waccamaw River at Conway. They also built the beach’s first hotel, the Seaside Inn, in 1901. At this time, oceanfront lots sold for $25, and buyers received an extra lot free if they built a house valued at $500 or more. The beach community was called "New Town" until the Horry Herald newspaper held a contest to officially name the area. Mrs. F.E. Burroughs, wife of the founder of the Burroughs & Collins Company, won the competition with "Myrtle Beach," a name she chose for the many Wax Myrtle trees growing wild along the shore. The Grand Strand’s first summer visitors had to contend with such things as razorback hogs rooting under their cottages. The sparsely populated coast provided access to rumrunners during Prohibition. One story tells about a large ship anchored offshore at White Point, south of Windy Hill Beach. Small boats brought the cargo to the strand. Usually small local operators were arrested and seldom were the big operators caught.

Nicholas F. Nixon, Sr. was a main force in getting a road constructed from Loris to Cherry Grove, crossing the Waccamaw River at Bellamy's Landing. It remained as a rough road for a number of years but it did assist Loris residents in making the journey to the beach. In 1924, the Nixon family subdivided Cherry Grove, drawing its name from an early plantation in the area and for a native tree. Cherry Grove was incorporated in 1959. Tilghman Estates lies between Cherry Grove and Ocean Drive. Charles T. Tilghman and members of his family developed the community in 1948. A group of businessmen from Florence, SC bought land in 1926 and formed Ocean Drive Estates. In 1948 Ocean Drive became the first of the towns to incorporate. Of the northern Horry beaches, Ocean Drive became the most popular. Ocean Drive Beach got its name because automobile races were once held on the strand. The pavilion, destroyed by Hurricane Hazel and replaced by the Pad, became the favorite hangout. Beach music, sun, and sand put "OD" on the map. Crescent Beach, first known as the Ward Estate, was named for the crescent-shaped arc of Long Bay. A field of corn called "the swamp field" was located where Crescent Beach is today. This was subdivided in 1937 and incorporated in 1953. Windy Hill formed in 1947 was incorporated in 1964.

In the 1920’s, a group of businessmen began building an upscale resort called Arcady at the north end of Myrtle Beach. This was the Strand’s first golf club and birthplace of the magazine Sports Illustrated as well as the legendary Ocean Forest Hotel. Although the Arcady dream dissolved in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Ocean Forest remained the center of Myrtle Beach social life for nearly 30 years. Several major developments took place along the Strand during the 30s and 40s. In 1936, the Intracoastal Waterway was opened for pleasure boating and commercial shipping. During the 1940’s, the Air Force Base was established and used for training and coastal patrols during World War II. The base was officially closed in 1993. Highway 501 was built in the 1950’s making the beach much more accessible.

Hurricane Hazel, the major storm of 1954, destroyed a lot of the buildings and trees along the Strand but led to the rebuilding of new and larger hotels. During this rebuilding phase in the 1960’s, the golf boom began and has continued to this day with new courses developing annually. During this expansion period, the Grand Strand became nationally known as a resort community, with motels, amusement parks, golf courses and tennis courts constructed. In the 1980s, the Grand Strand’s popularity increased sharply. Myrtle Beach was named the sixth fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States.

Elbert Jordan is credited for beginning the movement of combining the northern beaches into one stronger municipal government. In 1968 it was agreed that the new town would be named North Myrtle Beach. The first mayor of North Myrtle Beach was Robert L. Edge. Council members consisted of Mance Watkins, Jennings Livingston, M.S. Thompson, David B. Witherspoon, Jr., Eli T. Goodman and J. Bryan Floyd.

In 1933 R.V. Ward sold Atlantic Beach to developer George Tyson, who named it Pearl Beach. Difficulties of the Great Depression and later the war resulted to the formation of The Atlantic Beach Company. This firm set aside a part of the oceanfront for use by the nonwhite community, and today 98 percent of the 350 year-round residents are black. In 1966, to avoid what its citizens considered a threat to their control, Atlantic Beach incorporated. Their four neighboring municipalities merged around Atlantic Beach when it declined the offer to join the formation of North Myrtle Beach for fear of being swallowed up by the larger city. The first mayor of Atlantic Beach was Emory Gore. The city’s government has always been entirely black.

Since 1990, the Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand area has entered a new boom period. The emergence of a flourishing country music entertainment and theater industry has led to many new motels, hotels, restaurants, homes, and other industries. The Myrtle Beach area is the state’s leading tourism destination and was ranked second as the nation’s favorite beach destination.

An Interview with Jennings Livingston April 2, 1998

Born in a house on Star Bluff Road in 1928, Mr. Livingston remembers his mother speaking of the first school in the area, the Muster Shed School. The school was founded in the late 1800’s and was allegedly named for its location where a local confederate garrison would gather to join ranks. Located in Wampee, the school served the Wampee Little River white student population until it was renamed Wampee Little River High School. To protect the students from the wild animals that roamed the free range, a "colored" man stood guard at the fence that surrounded the school.

The family of Roberta Rust, a friend of Mr. Livingston, owned the land where the Muster Shed was built. The Muster Shed only went to the 8th or 9th grade and there was no high school in the area. Mr. Livingston recalls that the local high school first started in 1928. Prior to this, students who wanted to go to college had to go to Chadburn, N.C. to take the college entrance test.

The first high school got its name because Little River was the hub market place of this area. Wampee Little River High School (the building that most people remember) was built on Hwy. 90 in Wampee in the 1940’s by Roosevelt’s WPA program. The elementary school was built between the Muster Shed and the new high school.

Mr. Livingston attended Wampee Little River High School in the 1940’s. He remembers that there was no indoor plumbing, no busses, and no cafeteria. The only source of heat was a small gas heater on one side of the room. The school calendar evolved around the local farming needs and conditions. A fairly strict dress code was enforced. Boys wore long pants and girls had to wear skirts or dresses. His graduating class of eighteen produced the first yearbook in 1945. At that time high school only went to the eleventh grade. There was no football team, but basketball and baseball were popular sports. He proudly remembers the basketball team going to the state finals on several occasions. The Junior Senior Prom, the event of the year, was held in the gym.

In about 1938 the schools got busses, but many children still had to walk a mile to a bus stop. As a student he drove the bus for a salary of ten dollars a month. He recalls that the weather seemed to be colder then and there was no heat on the bus. Before the road that connected Loris to the beach was constructed, people had to take a ferry over the Waccamaw River. There was a road that ran from Wampee, around Star Bluff Road, straight to Windy Hill. Completion of the Intercoastal Waterway cut this road off; thus, causing the need for a new road and bridge. There were no phones but he remembers getting electricity in the early 1940’s.

An Interview with Mr. E.M. Henry and Mrs. A.J. Henry Mr. E.M Henry, served from 1954-1969 May 19, 1998

When Mr. Henry moved to this vicinity in 1947 from Florida, the black high school for this area was the Popular Training School on Highway 90. At the time Mr. J.T. Chestnut was the school’s principal. Mr. Chestnut did not have a college degree, (not many people did during this time) and he was not eligible to sign the diplomas. During the war, Mr. Chestnut brought a woman who had a degree to help him run the school and sign the diplomas. In 1945 the state started recertifying teachers and principals; thus, many teachers were sent back to college to seek degrees. Teachers and administrators were given four years to get a degree. Mrs. Henry claims to be the fourth black person in Horry County to earn a degree, and she graduated with the principal.

During this time, black and white teachers were not paid the same. The schools were not federally funded; thus, the teacher’s salary was at the discretion of the principal. They started to make the same around 1945 when the NTE (National Teachers's Exam) was introduced as a method of determining pay. The teachers were given the test before they started teaching and their grade on the test determined their salary.

Mrs. A.J. Henry

Mrs. Henry graduated when there were only 10 grades. The 11th grade was added in the fall 1933 and the 12th grade was added in the fall of 1949. During this time the buildings of the school for the Blacks were called Rosenwald buildings. All black schools were not Rosenwald buildings. The ones that were Rosenwald were built from a combination of funds from contributed by the black community and the Rosenwald Funds. One of the Rosenwald buildings, built in 1950, is still standing on Hwy. 90.

In 1952, Mr. Chestnut retired and turned his position and the control of the school over to Mr. E.M. Henry. Two years later, Chestnut Consolidated High School was formed and named after Mr. Chestnut. The new school brought together children from Atlantic Beach, Little River, Little River Neck, Brooksville, Mt. Calvary, Red Bluff, Cedar Branch and Longs. Before this school, Little River Neck had a school in a church and Little River had its own little school with two or three teachers. School busses started making routes for the black children in 1950. Before this, Mr. Chestnut went out in his own personal bus to pickup the children. Children that lived in Little River Neck had to walk to Nixon’s Crossroads to meet the bus.

Before Chestnut Consolidate High School was completed, the administration and teachers were trying to get the Popular Training School (Historic spelling in all archives is spelled Poplar Training School) accredited by the state. The school was very small and at one point only had five students in its graduating class. When the new school was built they faced the same problem. To become an accredited high school the school also had to have one person to be in the library science department. That is why Mrs. Henry went back to school to get certified in library science. Both Mr. and Mrs. Henry went to Chestnut when it was finished in 1954. Mr. Henry was a teaching principal who taught business, and Mrs. Henry was the librarian. Hurricane Hazel damaged the building so only high school students started there in 1954. After completion of Chestnut, the old Poplar school became the elementary school. The grammar school for Poplar was located on the same grounds.

Chestnut Consolidated High School became accredited with the Southern Association in 1969. In 1970 the local schools integrated to become North Myrtle Beach High School. Mr. Ingram was the first principal at the new school. The county superintendent said that schools could not be named after people anymore. Mrs. Henry went to the superintendent and asked if they could form a committee, consisting of teachers from both schools, to prepare for the integration. Mr. Anderson, the superintendent agreed and the committee met in the spring before the 1970-71 school year began. This committee decided that they should take elements from each of the old schools and combine them for the new school. The North Myrtle Beach High School colors, blue and gold, came from both Wampee Little River High School and Chestnut High School. The colors of Wampee were blue and white. The colors of Chestnut were maroon and gold. The first year of integration the principal let the student council president from both schools serve and there were two of almost everything else that year- there was a black Ms. DAR and a white Ms. DAR, etc.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry were both very instrumental in the shaping of our school today. Both of them have seen a lot of changes in the educational world.

An Interview with Mildred Ward April 27, 1998

Mildred Ward worked in the Horry Country School System for forty-two years. She started teaching at Myrtle Beach High School and taught there for four years. After this she came to Wampee Little River High School and taught the business education class, then called Commerce. She taught at Wampee Little River and later North Myrtle Beach High School for a total of thirty-eight years. Over these years she held the positions of classroom teacher, guidance counselor, bus supervisor, driver’s education instructor, and assistant principal.

Mrs. Ward first moved to this area in 1950. She had some knowledge of the earlier schools in the area. The old Muster Shed School was founded in the late 1800’s and housed grades one through eight. The teacher, Kate Ward, was also the postmaster. Kate Ward arose every morning at 5 a.m. and walked to school. She would build a fire so the one room building would be warm enough when the students arrived. Mrs. Ward also said that before Chestnut High School was build in 1954, the black students went to a number of elementary schools that were located in various communities. Whittemore, located in Conway, was the only high school for black students in the area. During this time there were no busses and few automobiles. Students had to walk to school. In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, there was one bus made out of an old truck that brought the white students from Ocean Drive to Wampee. Later, when the schools did have busses, the school itself owned the busses rather than the county or state. The school was also responsible for gassing and maintaining their own busses. When the school district later sold the busses to the state, the money made from the sale was used to remodel the principal’s house and to build a house for one of the agriculture teachers.

When Mrs. Ward started her teaching career in 1945 she made $175 a month. During this time she had an automobile and paid her own board. During the depression teachers could not be paid because there was no money, so instead, they received notes. If a teacher was in desperate need of money, he or she could take the note to People’s National Bank in Conway. Mr. Collins, the owner of the bank, would then give them 50% of what the note was worth. During this time it was the school, not the state or county, who paid the teachers. Teachers were paid out of the taxable property of the school’s area.

The many scattered elementary schools closed when Wampee Little River High School was built. From 1928-1934 the school was a two-story white building. Local men of the community built the gymnasium in 1934. Mrs. Ward’s husband, Julius, carried the support poles for the gym on an old log cart pulled by two mules. The janitor, Henry Small, was responsible for keeping the fire going (in an old cut out oil drum) as it was the only heat source. Spectators paid twenty-five cents to attend games, while referees were paid twenty-five cents a game out of this money. The first graduating class of Wampee Little River High School was in 1929 and consisted of twelve students. Before this school was completed, students who wanted to go to high school had to go to Conway or Chadburn. There was a boarding school in Aynor called the Aynor Industrial School. Students had to pass a county test in the seventh grade to be eligible to attend high school.

From 1932-1934 a brick building was constructed by the WPA that replaced the two-story structure. There was no graduating class in 1946 as the twelfth grade was added and the first twelfth grade class graduated in 1947. A small gas heater was the heat source in each room. The children sitting close to the heater would burn up while those on the other side of the room froze. The community really cared about the children and their education. Gladys Adams, a community leader, organized such things as barbecues and Halloween Carnivals to raise money to put air conditioning window units in each room. A primary school was build at the beach, but the parents west of the waterway did not want their children going to school at the beach. For the first couple of months, few parents sent their children to the new school. Slowly, people began to send children to the new school because it had two teachers per grade while Wampee might have one teacher for three grades.

In the 1970-71 school year, integration began. When Wampee High and Chestnut High consolidated, the community voted on all of the school’s new changes. Mrs. Ward remembered that our school accepted integration better than any other school in Horry County. Since Wampee High had been the "Indians" and Chestnut High had been the "Braves", (Chestnut High mascot was the Chieftains from the beginning of the school in 1954 to 1968. Research is ongoing to get an explanation on why it was changed from Chieftains to Braves.) Chestnut High Alumni Association refers to the school mascot as Chieftains. It seems like it may have been changed in 1968 to the Braves on some kind of impulse by someone. In the beginning the community voted North Myrtle Beach to be the "Chiefs". Actually, the name of the school, North Myrtle Beach High, had to be voted on too. There were several other names submitted for the new school, but since the community had consolidated not so long before, North Myrtle Beach High School won. The new school colors also had to be voted on. Wampee High’s colors were blue and white, and Chestnut High’s were maroon and gold. The blue was taken from Wampee and the gold from Chestnut to make the North Myrtle Beach High School colors of blue and gold. North Myrtle Beach High School was housed at the Chestnut High structure as it was a newer facility. This structure later housed the middle school and has recently been replaced by the new North Myrtle Beach Middle School.

North Myrtle Beach High School moved into its current building which is a modern pod structure, in 1980. Our school was the first school in Horry County to have an air-conditioned gymnasium. A time capsule was placed in one of the columns at the front entrance. Several newspapers and a yearbook were a few of the items placed in the capsule. A definite time for opening the capsule was never set.

An Interview with George L. Williams Sr. April 29, 1998

Mr. George L. Williams Sr. was the principal of North Myrtle Beach High School from 1975-86. Mr. Williams spoke of the many changes he has witnessed in the field of education and more specifically North Myrtle Beach High School. He spoke of the days that farming took priority over education. Often the school year started after Labor Day and ended before Easter to accommodate the farming needs. Mr. Williams moved to the area in 1955 and taught at Chestnut Consolidated High School. During this time the elementary and high school were together under one roof. In 1968, he went to Conway High and was the first African-American teacher on that staff.

In 1974, after being an assistant principal at Conway High School, he was asked by the area superintendent, Tom McInville, to be the new principal of North Myrtle Beach Elementary. Horry County was divided into the three districts of Conway, Myrtle Beach, and North Myrtle Beach. Mr. Williams was hesitant about the new job, but when he was told that his salary would double he could not resist. After going to North Myrtle Beach Elementary, he was transferred to North Myrtle Beach High School before school started that year.

When Wampee Littler River High School and Chestnut High School were integrated in 1970, the newly named school, North Myrtle Beach High School, was housed in Chestnut High School building. The building was the better of the two as Chestnut had had a recent face-lift in hopes of discouraging the desire to integrate. Mr. Williams asked for a better building as soon as he got to this school. He, along with teachers, worked to get a new building. They worked diligently to get a bond referendum passed. Their hard work paid off as the community passed the referendum with a 76% vote. The present building was completed and opened in 1979.

The new school design, the pod structure, came as a result of Mr. Williams and others traveling around to look at the new trends of the time. Mr. Williams liked the radical change (pods) rather than the traditional straight hallways. The design of the school, with its air conditioned gymnasium (the first in the county), brought many visitors to see the new facility.

After getting into the new building, Mr. Williams started a movement to get a ROTC program. With the help of Senator Ernest Hollings and Mr. John Holliday of Galivants Ferry, a Naval ROTC program, which was the first in the area, was added to the curriculum. Under the guidance of Lt. Col. Ray Allen and Chief Bill Lindsay, the unit became a tremendous asset to the school. In just a short period of time, improvement was seen across the spectrum - from discipline to academics. Mr. Williams spoke proudly of the fact that SAT scores increased during the first few years of his leadership. For several years, NMBHS, under the leadership of Peggy McCracken, won the local Brain Game competition with other Horry County schools. Assisting Mr. Williams as administrators was Mrs. Mildred Ward and Mr. Henry Moore., two long time Horry County educators.

In 1980 the school purchased four computers and a few years later enough were ordered to open a computer lab. The new school had only been open a few weeks when Hurricane David forced it to serve as an evacuation center. Since then, the school has housed thousands of people for such occasions.

North Myrtle Beach High School is proud to serve as the home of Vanna White who graduated in 1975. Mr. Williams remembers that Kelly Tilghman was the first girl to play on an all boys team. Kelly broke the ice while she led the golf team to many victories.

When Mr. Williams retired in 1986 he was replaced by Mrs. Harriet S. Blanton served as principal from 1986 to 1996.

Mr. David Underhill served as NMBHS principal from 1996 to 1999.

Mr. Boe Rainbow became Interim Principal from February 1999 to July of 1999.

In the spring of 1999 Mr. Porter Kennington became NMBHS's principal after serving in that role for several years at Central High School in Pageland, SC. In the spring of 2006 Mr. Kennington was appointed to the position of Principal at Conway HIgh School.

Mr. Mike Blanton replaced Mr. Kennington as the new NMBHS Principal in the spring of 2006.

This information was first made available on February 2, 1998.