The Myrtle Beach Pavilion, 20 Years Later: What It Was, What Remains and Where the Fun Lives On

On Sept. 24, 2006, the gates of the Myrtle Beach Pavilion closed to the general public, and a few days later a crowd came back for one final evening of rides before the lights went dark for good. Twenty years on, people who grew up coming to the Grand Strand can still hear it if they close their eyes: the rattle of coaster cars climbing a lift hill, the old band organ’s music drifting over the crowd, the smell of fried dough and salt air along Ocean Boulevard on a warm July night.

For generations of families, the Pavilion was the evening half of a beach vacation. Days belonged to the ocean, and nights belonged to that glowing block of rides, arcades and boardwalk noise in the middle of downtown Myrtle Beach. Losing it felt, to a lot of people, like losing a piece of their own childhood.

This anniversary is a good time to look back at how the Pavilion came to be, what happened to the land and the pieces that survived, and where visitors can still find that old-fashioned seaside amusement feeling today, both in Myrtle Beach and a short drive north in North Myrtle Beach.

A Seaside Landmark With Roots in the Early 1900s

The story of a pavilion on this stretch of beach goes back to the early 1900s, when the first wooden structure went up near the oceanfront to give visitors a place to gather, dance and get out of the sun. Historical accounts differ on the exact year of that first building, but it belongs to the same era when Myrtle Beach itself was just beginning to turn from a quiet stretch of coast into a vacation town, a transformation we trace in our look at how Myrtle Beach became a vacation destination.

A fire destroyed the earlier pavilion in 1944, and what replaced it was built to last. The amusement area began operating in 1948, and in 1949 a new reinforced-concrete pavilion opened on the site. The property was owned and operated by Burroughs & Chapin, the company whose history is woven through much of Myrtle Beach’s development, and over the following decades the Pavilion grew into the anchor of downtown’s oceanfront.

According to WPDE’s history of the park, the Pavilion rode out Hurricane Hazel in 1954, a storm that reshaped much of the Carolina coast. That resilience became part of its identity. For many families, the building was simply always there, as permanent a fixture of a summer trip as the ocean itself.

The Rides People Still Talk About

Ask anyone who grew up visiting the Pavilion about their favorite ride and you will likely get a long answer. The park added attractions steadily over the years, and WPDE’s timeline marks several of the milestones that longtime visitors remember best. The Corkscrew coaster and the Haunted Hotel both arrived in 1978, the Mad Mouse came in 1998, and in 2000 the park opened the Hurricane, a coaster with a 100-foot drop and a top speed of 55 miles per hour.

Not every memory is a sunny one. WPDE also recalls the 2001 tornado that struck the area and sent 36 people to the hospital with minor injuries, a frightening afternoon that longtime locals still mention when they talk about the park. Even so, the lasting picture most people carry is of summer evenings, of little kids tugging parents toward the kiddie rides and of the whole place humming until late at night.

The Final Summer of 2006

When word came that the 2006 season would be the Pavilion’s last, the summer took on the feeling of a long goodbye. As WPDE recounts, the park leaned into that sentiment with a final-season theme built around the idea of one more ride, one last time, and visitors turned out to take it. The Pavilion closed to the general public on Sept. 24, 2006, and returned for a special Last Ride event on Sept. 30, when people lined up to board their favorite rides one final time.

Demolition began in 2007, and the roughly 11 to 12 acres that had held the rides, arcades and the old building were cleared. For people who had spent decades of summers there, driving past the empty stretch of Ocean Boulevard took some getting used to.

What Survived: The Carousel and the Band Organ

Not everything disappeared. The Pavilion’s 1912 Herschell-Spillman carousel, one of the park’s most beloved pieces, was moved to Pavilion Nostalgia Park at Broadway at the Beach, which opened on July 4, 2007. The carousel is still reported to be at the park now known as Pavilion Park at Broadway at the Beach, where families can ride the same carousel their parents and grandparents once did. Park operations and ride availability can change, so confirm before you go if the carousel is the reason for your visit.

The Pavilion’s German band organ, an instrument dating to around 1900 that is widely described as having been built for the 1900 Paris Exposition, was another treasure that longtime visitors remember for the music it poured over the crowds. We were not able to confirm where the organ is today, so if hearing it again is on your wish list, it is worth checking with Broadway at the Beach or local historical groups before making a special trip.

What Stands on the Pavilion Site Today

Two decades after the rides came down, the former Pavilion property remains largely open ground, and it has found a second life as a festival site. Since 2015 it has hosted the Carolina Country Music Fest, which fills the old amusement grounds with stages and crowds each summer. The Post and Courier has reported an economic impact of roughly $50 million a year from the festival, a reminder that the land is still drawing people to downtown Myrtle Beach even without a single ride on it.

The Myrtle Beach Adventure Zipline was the last attraction to operate on the site, and it closed in 2024. As of WMBF’s reporting in February 2026, no redevelopment plan had been announced. Mayor Mark Kruea, elected in November 2025, has described the site as the cornerstone of downtown redevelopment, and the Post and Courier reported in February 2026 that a proposal was under consideration, with tourism leaders including Visit Myrtle Beach’s Stuart Butler favoring an amphitheater of roughly 15,000 seats. That idea has been discussed, not decided, so the future of the old Pavilion ground is still an open question.

Where the Old Seaside Amusement Spirit Lives On

The Pavilion is gone, but the oceanfront amusement tradition it anchored did not vanish with it. A few blocks south along Ocean Boulevard, visitors can still spend an evening the old-fashioned way, with ride lights reflecting off the water and the sound of the surf under the screams from a coaster.

Family Kingdom Amusement Park

Family Kingdom, at 300 S. Ocean Blvd., is operating in 2026 and carries the closest thing to the Pavilion’s spirit on the Myrtle Beach oceanfront. The park has added new rides including the Inferno, the Kraken, the Colossus and the Crazy Chopper, and its Swamp Fox wooden coaster turns 60 in 2026, which makes it a living link to the era when the Pavilion was in its prime. A Raptor single-rail coaster is slated for late 2026, though opening timelines for new rides often shift. Our guide to Family Kingdom and our update on the Raptor coaster have more for planning a visit.

SkyWheel and the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk

Next door, the SkyWheel at 320 S. Ocean Blvd. rises 187 feet over the beach and has been turning since it opened on May 20, 2011. It sits along the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk, where an evening stroll past arcades, shops and the open ocean still delivers a taste of the oceanfront nightlife that once centered on the Pavilion. For more ideas across the area, our guide to things to do in Myrtle Beach rounds up attractions for every kind of trip.

North Myrtle Beach Keeps Its Own Pavilion Tradition

A short drive north, the word pavilion still means something very much alive. The OD Pavilion at 91 S. Ocean Blvd. in the Ocean Drive section of North Myrtle Beach is an open-air gathering spot tied to the beach music and shag dancing traditions that grew up along this coast. According to the pavilion’s own history, the first pavilion on the spot opened in June 1926, the 1936 pavilion was destroyed by Hurricane Hazel on Oct. 15, 1954, and the current building was constructed between 1955 and 1957 on the same foundation. Nearby, the OD Arcade and Lounge at 100 S. Ocean Blvd. keeps the arcade-and-music side of the tradition going.

An evening on Main Street and around the OD Pavilion, with beach music carrying down to the sand, offers a feeling that longtime Pavilion fans will recognize, even if the rides are fewer. The story of how that music took hold is told in our piece on the Grand Strand’s musical legacy. From there, it is easy to explore the rest of North Myrtle Beach, from the marshes and fishing spots of Cherry Grove to the calmer, family-friendly beaches of Crescent Beach and Windy Hill.

Frequently Asked Questions

Make North Myrtle Beach Your Home Base

The best way to revisit the Grand Strand of your childhood, or introduce it to a new generation, is to settle in somewhere that feels like home. North Myrtle Beach offers wide, relaxed beaches, the beach music heritage of Ocean Drive and an easy drive south to Family Kingdom, the SkyWheel and the old Pavilion grounds. Families who want space for everyone often choose our oceanfront homes, while couples and smaller groups tend to love the convenience of our oceanfront condos.

Sources: WPDE (September 2026); WMBF (February 2026); The Post and Courier (February 2026); Family Kingdom Amusement Park; SkyWheel Myrtle Beach; OD Pavilion history. Details subject to change — confirm attraction hours and ride availability before you go.