Disclaimer: This site is included as a matter of interest and considered to be local lore since the content has not been substantiated by any history authority. Note that this is private home with no historic marker or available tours. Please respect private property.

Site of a famous and infamous supper club known as Charlie's Place, this Myrtle Beach spot was known far and wide for decades. The owner, Charlie Fitzgerald, opened the club in 1937. During the Jim Crow years, black entertainers could perform in white venues like the Ocean Forest Hotel, but they could not use the hotel facilities. Therefore, many performers on the "Chicken Circuit" would opt to stay "On the Hill" and Charlie's Place was the most happening place around. Customers could find an answer for nearly every "recreation" he or she desired and the food was pretty good too. Customers were mixed race and on many nights whites outnumbered blacks. One could walk in and find Lena Horne, Cab Callaway or Duke Ellington on stage.

Charlie's Place is also the site of one of the most famous Ku Klux Klan disturbances in this part of South Carolina. In 1950, Klan members from Conway were recruited by Klan Grand Dragon and members from the Leesville area to conduct a raid on Charlie's Place. Twenty-six cars of armed Klansmen came to Myrtle Beach and rode around the nightclub shooting hundreds of rounds. Everyone except Charlie escaped out back. He was attacked and beaten. The only death was a Klansman, shot in the back by another Klansman. When disrobed, the dead Klansman was still wearing his Conway City Police uniform. Turned out he had announced that he intended to challenge a local judge in a coming election. Many locals contend that it was more of a political assassination, rather than a racial incident.

Site Access: Private
Ownership: Private

Guided Tours: No
Group Tours No