Nestled along the Grand Strand between North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach lies the smallest beach town, and consequently, the smallest beach, in all of South Carolina – and perhaps, even all of America. The Town of Atlantic Beach incorporated in 1966 and celebrated 50 years in 2016. However, over the decades since the community gained municipal status, much of the land has been annexed, swallowed up by neighboring big dollar tourist cities to the north and south.
All that remains is three linear city blocks of Atlantic Beach, the first — and only, all black-owned beach community in the state.
On their official website, the town is proud to boast that all the buildings and property are still black owned, and include hotels, shops, nightclubs and more. (Much of the land is filled with residential housing.)
And you'll see all of those businesses when you're driving through on North Kings Highway. But it's what you can't see from the main strip that really displays what's in the hearts of those who live in this tiny beach community.
Over on the beach, for the most part, those three linear blocks are entirely undeveloped with wide open sand between the street and the ocean... just like the good old days. No one has sold out (yet), and no one has developed. It's a lovely thought, that parts of the beach along of the Grand Strand are still privately owned and pointedly undeveloped.
You see, during times of segregation, and beginning in the 1930s, people of African American descent from Wilimington to Florida started migrating to this small stretch of sand and began buying it up, little by little
And today, even though a large part of their town has been annexed by neighboring communities, this entirely black-owned beach town is still growing. The 2000 Census marked the population at 351; and the 2016 estimate was 450 residents. Technically, the town is .02 sq mile, or some 128 acres.
The next time you're passing through the Grand Strand on N. Kings Highway and you pass the little green sign for "Atlantic Beach," think of the fascinating history of the state's smallest beach town, known as 'The Black Pearl."
