COASTAL OBSERVER

The Pawleys Island Historic District was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, a year after the listing of the historic district in Georgetown. 

“Pawleys Island area is currently undergoing massive economic development and needs the protection,” the state’s historic preservation coordinator wrote to the head of the National Register.

While the city began protecting its historic structures through an architectural review board, the town is struggling to catch up, worried that 10 of the oldest structures named in its historic district could be torn down to make way for new beachfront houses.

“We’re looking at every possible option we can look at to preserve the unique, incredible place we live in,” said John Hildreth, who chairs the town Planning Commission.

Pawleys Island adopted design standards for new construction in 2021. It added tree protection to the Architectural Review Board’s duties last year. The commission has pressed Town Council to add historic preservation, but council members say they need to balance that with property rights.

The commission is now looking at updating the survey of historic properties to determine how many within the historic district may have significance and whether the district should be expanded. The district approved in 1972 runs 1.8 miles along Myrtle Avenue from just north of Town Hall and stops just north of the Birds Nest section. It includes the beach and the marsh.

Because there was no “period of significance” in the original nomination, that period is considered to be 50 years from the date of approval, or around 1922, Hildreth learned from the state Department of Archives and History.

But he was also told that the department would help the town seek a National Park Service grant to pay half the cost of a $50,000 to $60,000 historic survey of the island.

“I don’t see any downside in putting the whole town on the National Register,” Hildreth said. “Getting on the registry is a positive.”

The grant deadline has passed for this year, but he hopes the town will be ready to apply next year.

Commission members will use the time to build support for preservation. They met last week with Kevin Jayroe, a member of Georgetown’s ARB, to get more information about the city’s rules in its five-block historic district.

“That seems to be a problem, that we’re telling people what they have to do with their property,” commission member Buddy Keller said.

Jayroe lives in a home that was built in 1739, a year before his ancestors came to Georgetown.

“I’m not the owner of my property, I’m the steward,” he said.

The city is updating its historic survey, which will shift the era of significance from the 1920s to the 1970s.  

“We’re finding houses within houses,” that have historic value, he said. “Defining your era of where you want to stop destruction, that’s important.”

Photos from the city’s original survey show what’s been lost. “It’s just gone and you won’t get it back,” Jayroe said.

The city’s guidelines apply to all exterior construction, not just new houses. New construction is easy. Renovations and additions are hard, he said.

“We want to maintain a rhythm in our district,” Jayroe said, so it’s important to consider what’s on either side of any proposed alterations. “We look at each project as an individual.”

Three members of the commission recently asked the town Board of Zoning Appeals to deny a variance request that allowed the owners of the 19th century Liberty Lodge to tear down a 1940s beach house on the same lot. They argued that the newer house reflected the “Pawleys look” as much as the older house. The owners said it was beyond repair.

The appeals board conditioned the replacement of the newer house on the preservation of the facade of the older house.

The city has also received requests to tear down old houses that the owners said couldn’t be repaired. The ARB first looks at preservation, then whether the structure could be moved within the historic district or outside the district. Demolition is the last option, Jayroe said.

“We’ve seen some that were in pretty rough shape be restored to be beautiful homes,” he said. 

Jayroe recalled that a bank had sought approval to tear down a foreclosed property because it thought the vacant lot would be easier to sell. The application was denied.

The house recently sold for $500,000, “and it was not a big renovation,” Jayroe said.

The former Tyson house on Myrtle Avenue south of Town Hall, which tax records date to the 1940s, was recently torn down after years of complaints from neighbors and other property owners. The town even contemplated adopting an ordinance that would allow it to condemn structures that became a nuisance.

The issue for the town has been “what is old versus what is historic,” Town Administrator Dan Newquist said, adding that the Tyson house “clearly affected the value of the neighbors.”

Georgetown has seen property values increase through renovations to run down properties, Jayroe said. There are grants available for that work.

“As long as you can find a story,” he said. “Find a connection to anything.”

In addition to the dates that they were listed on the National Register, “there’s such a connection between your historic district and our historic district,” Jayroe told the commission. Some houses had common owners and similar construction.

“Get in that mindset,” he said. “We’re all stewards of our property.”