Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 26% of U.S. towns · #87 of 169 in South Carolina. What drives it
Most of Myrtle Beach was built recently: 0.8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. 8 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 107 buildings between them. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1937 on, and the census since 1940.
The Myrtle Beach post office opened in 1901, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1936.
More historic than 26% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Myrtle Beach is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns, #87 of 169 in South Carolina. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
South Carolina towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical South Carolina town has 3.2 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Myrtle Beach’s 30.2 sits above most of its state (74% of South Carolina towns have fewer) while its 116 historic buildings outnumber those of 90% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Myrtle Beach’s post office has been open since 1901.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Myrtle Beach.
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Long Bay area was inhabited by the historic Waccamaw tribe. The Waccamaw used the river for travel and fished along the shore around Little River. Waties Island, the primary barrier island along Long Bay, has evidence of burial and shell mounds, remains of the visiting Waccamaw.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltPleasant Inn is built
In the archiveMyrtle Beach - School Building
In the archiveMyrtle Beach - Bathing scene
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveMyrtle Beach - The Miramar TerraceBuiltWaikiki Village Motel is built
Born hereShane Carruth is born here
Born hereKiera Cass is born here
Born hereRamon Sessions is born here
Born hereMadison Iseman is born here3 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Myrtle Beach. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Myrtle Beach.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Myrtle Beach’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,597 people in 1940 to 35,682 in 2020, more than tenfold.
9 censuses, 1940–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Myrtle Beach’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Myrtle Beach post office opened in 1901, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1936.
Myrtle Beach is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns, #87 of 169 in South Carolina. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
8 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Ocean Forest Country Club (listed 1996, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Myrtle Heights-Oak Park Historic District and the Myrtle Beach Downtown Historic District, with 107 contributing buildings. 116 historic buildings in all.
0.8% of Myrtle Beach’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 3.5% for a South Carolina town; the median home was built in 1994.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (8), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1935
c. 1935
1939
