Early November 2020

Much of this area on South Carolina’s coast was land owned by Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington. Archer Huntington was the son of railroad magnate and industrialist Collis P. Huntington. The family’s vast wealth provided Archer with opportunities for education, travel, and philanthropy.

When Anna and Archer met and married (he was in his fifties and she in her late forties), both were very accomplished. Anna was already a groundbreaking sculptor of significant means; this at a time when there were few successful women sculptors. She’s been described as the most famous sculptor you never heard of. Her works are in public parks and museums around the world. New York friends can see her Joan of Arc statue at Riverside and 93rd. Archer and Anna’s move to Murrells Inlet in the early 1930s was precipitated by Anna’s health. She had been diagnosed with tuberculosis and advised to seek out a milder climate.

They were an interesting couple – eccentric to say the least. Their home “Atalaya,” which Archer designed based on his love of Spanish architecture, is within the grounds of the Huntington Beach State Park, where we camped for about a week.

Archer was best known for his scholarly works in Hispanic Studies and for founding the Hispanic Society of America. He used Atalaya as a place for solace, writing, and study. For Anna, this was a place to pursue her art on a grand scale. Her sculpture studio and metal shop were a large part of the house, along with holding pens for horses, monkeys, wild bears, boars, and other animals that were live subjects for her artwork.

The house looks to have been a retreat for a couple who enjoyed the privacy it provided. Sadly, the house is really a ruin at this point – just a brick shell that’s slowly falling to the whims of coastal weather.

However, Brookgreen Gardens, which the Huntingtons created, is the polar opposite. Just across the street from Atalaya, America’s first public sculpture garden is well worth a visit. The grounds are lush and well-manicured; fountains and pools splash around large outdoor sculptures; and walkways lined with flowers lead you through the garden spaces.

The collection of art is vast – more than 2,000 figurative sculptures by 430 artists – but the placement and spacing of the artworks doesn’t feel crowded.

The Huntingtons designed this as a place to display Anna’s sculpture and also provide a showcase for dozens of other sculptors. Anna might actually be better known as a patron of the arts, than for her own art.

A Brookgreen Gardens bonus is that the entry ticket is good for seven days. So, we went twice. During our visit, the Garden was hosting a Bruce Munro Light exhibit.

The display brought back memories of my time at Longwood Gardens. When I started there in 2012, my first big assignment was to organize the volunteer effort to support the installation of Bruce Munro’s Light. That was Munro’s first US installation. Munro came with a skeleton crew of helpers, and numerous Longwood staff and volunteers provided the additional help needed for the installation. It was a challenging and successful undertaking that helped usher in other special exhibits at Longwood.

Brookgreen Gardens also highlights the history of this area through its educational programs. The Low Country area, with its inlets and tidal creeks, was home to large rice plantations in the 1800s. We took a guided boat tour of the creek and learned more about the history of rice and the critical roles that enslaved Africans played in its production. The fortunes of wealthy rice plantation owners led to the development of Charleston, Savannah, and Georgetown as we know them today. We also learned about Gullah culture and the nearby coastal islands still inhabited by descendants of African slaves.

Today, the town of Murrells Inlet is a popular seaside resort, with a boardwalk, souvenir shops selling tee shirts, and big waterfront restaurants with competing Happy Hour specials. We opted to cook most of our own dinners and found two great seafood shops for oysters, grouper and shrimp. We also discovered a small, family-owned restaurant called Russell’s Seafood. It’s set a block back from the waterfront and has fantastic oysters on the half shell. Our first batch was so good, we went back the next day for another round!

We enjoyed our stay at the Huntington Beach campground. The short walk to the beach was along a trail through palmettos and live oaks, and we could hear the ocean waves at night. We could easily understand the Huntington’s romantic attraction to the area.

From Murrells Inlet, we started working our way south, snowbirds heading toward Florida.