Briarcliffe Acres, South Carolina
Encyclopedia
Briarcliffe Acres is a town in Horry County
, South Carolina
, United States
that is between Myrtle Beach
and North Myrtle Beach
. The population was 470 at the 2000 census.
, the town has a total area of 0.6 square miles (1.6 km²), all of it land.
(from which he took the name of his project), who married Virginia (Ginny) Gasque . Her family came from the nearby town of Conway, South Carolina
. Briarcliffe was one of the first planned communities in the southeast, which is interesting on its own terms, but its story is a window into the whole of the area (not even mentioning the Vereens, in whose home George Washington
slept [27 April, 1791], and much more besides).
In the early (pre-1930) parts of the last century, the coastal areas of northernmost South Carolina were used mostly as farming sites (the real estate monolith now known as Burroughs and Chapin for decades was named “Myrtle Beach Farms”). Sea breezes washed nutrients on crops planted on sand dunes, much as now is done through roots in hydroponic gardens, and cotton and tobacco thrived; farmers from Loris, Gallivant’s Ferry, Florence and other low-country towns bought land on the coast for practical reasons and then spent summers with their families there, rather than stay in the hellish heat and sand fleas of their main farms.
As a result, a few people subsequently built vacation homes in the first resort area, Murrell’s Inlet, and, later, erected rooming houses north in what would become Myrtle Beach. One influential example was the Patricia Court (later Patricia Inn and now Patricia Grand Resort) started in the 1930s but reaching importance in the late 1940s, built by Patricia Rousseau of North Wilkesboro, NC. Further north still, Ken and Ginny Ellsworth recognized that the idea of living at the beach for its own sake could be expanded into a community. They found a large tract of land owned by Elizabeth Patterson, a daughter of the Chapins.
Elizabeth Chapin Patterson was a devotee of the eclectic Indian religious leader Meher Baba
(born Merwan Sheriar Irani; his chosen name means “compassionate father”), the author, among much else, of Discourses
and God Speaks
. He believed and taught that he was the Avatar
—incarnation of God—for the age in which he lived. (Incidentally, he originated the line “Don't Worry, Be Happy
” that Bobby McFerrin
used as the basis of his hit song.)
Patterson established the Meher Spiritual Center
on the southern part of the land she owned (through her family) and sold the northern section to the Ellsworths. She built her own home on the side that was to become Briarcliffe, on what is now Middle Gate Road. To this day, several followers of Baba live in Briarcliffe, many on South Gate Road or Patterson Road to be adjacent to the Meher Spiritual Center.
As soon as it was possible after acquiring the property the Ellsworths dug a yacht basin on the adjacent Intracoastal Waterway, on the land side of US Highway 17
. They built a small cottage between the highway and yacht basin so they could be close both to the wealthy people on the waterway and the potentially larger numbers of people driving down the main road from New York to Miami. (The idea of capitalizing on the highway also motivated Jack Nelson who built the El Rancho Motel, once featured in Life
Magazine, about ten miles (16 km) south.) Ken and Ginny cut roads, layered them with coquina (a local mix of sand and fossilized shells), and looked for residents.
Among the first people to move in were Ginny’s parents who built a home on what is now North Gate Road, just on the edge of the brow above the drop-down to the beach, backing up to the huge lot owned by the Lewis family (who owned the northernmost fishing pier in the area). The location on the brow—like that of Patterson’s home, on the opposite end of the property—was intended to provide both easy access to the shore and protection from storms (a plan that has worked until the present day).
Next came the Sorry family, who built next to the Gasques. They were followed by the Dutch van Buren family (distant descendants of the American President), who discovered the place by anchoring one night in the yacht basin on a trip south and then visiting the land, deciding to build a home and retire, which proved the wisdom of Ken Ellsworth’s original scheme.
The van Burens told another Dutch family — Anton Frederik and Casperina Hermina Groeneveld Baarslag, friends of theirs from New York
and Vermont
— about the place who visited and then moved down in 1950.
In 1951 Alfred Colby Hockings and his wife — he was a well-known illustrator for Field and Stream
magazine, originally from Wisconsin but most recently living in the artists' community of Tryon, North Carolina
—-built a home up the street from the Gasques and Sorrys and across from the Baarslags; at almost the same time another Dutch family—Gerbrand and Nellie Poster, the son-in-law and daughter of the Baarslags, came down from New York City to visit her parents for Christmas, decided to stay, and built a home next door to her parents.
(Poster was later to found Coastal Federal Savings and Loan Association and use connections developed during his military service as a Dutch national in the US Army during World War II
to help convince the US Government to declare that the damage done by Hurricane Hazel
in 1954 should be covered by insurance. This made possible the second renaissance of the community, the first having been its emergence from the Great Depression
.)
At this time, all the homes in Briarcliffe—except for the van Burens, who lived across the road from the central lake, and Elizabeth Patterson, whose home was on what is now South Gate Road—were clustered along what is now North Gate Road. And two developments, one small and one huge, changed Briarcliffe in ways that remain to this day.
The first was the Poster family itself, which when moving in included a 7 year old and a 4 year old and who were soon joined by a newborn. This changed the tenor of Briarcliffe by moving it from a retirement community to a third (less-expensive) alternative to the Pine Lakes and Dunes sections, all of which offered a place to rear a family close to, but not in, the increasing tawdriness of Myrtle Beach itself.
The second was the financial impact of the government’s intervention with the insurance companies after Hurricane Hazel. The companies had wanted to declare the damage “high water,” which was not covered; Poster convinced the authorities that the damage had been caused by “wind-driven water,” which was covered. This changed the whole of Myrtle Beach, as payment of claims allowed small rooming houses to be replaced by motels. This impacted the whole of coastal South Carolina, including Briarcliffe.
At the same time, the United States Air Force had decided to deal with the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base
by treating it as a sort of reward to which people could be assigned if they deserved a vacation or a punishment for those whose careers were at an end.
Many people in both groups chose Briarcliffe as a place in which to build or buy, ranging from important Air Force heroes (such as Col. Francis ["Gabby"] Gabreski
, the first pilot to be an "ace" in two wars) to investors, artists and simple families. The boom in Myrtle Beach led to a boom in Briarcliffe, and soon a community once associated with raccoons and deer became a residential destination.
Among the significant people in this new wave must be remembered Rolf Bierens, another Dutchman who—having retired from General Motors
thanks to his involvement in the design of their automatic transmission—first built his home with his own hands and then the first cabana. Increasingly, other residents brought histories, such as the then-industrialist Krampf, button-manufacturer Schwanda and developer Passow.
Briarcliffe was once a place of lakes, pine and scrub-oak forests and wild animals. Many early residents—largely Netherlanders
who had sought liberation—had settled there seeking freedom. When people started naming streets (in the 1960s someone put up a sign declaring that what is now “Hickory Lane” or “Holly Lane” was “Phalarope Path”) it caused weeks of muttering. So when other newcomers began demanding structured government--“You know, like we had it back home”—the few remaining originals, such as Nellie Poster, moved, resigned themselves to their fates or obligingly died.
of 2000, there were 470 people, 200 households, and 145 families residing in the town. The population density
was 719.7 people per square mile (279.2/km²). There were 221 housing units at an average density of 338.4 per square mile (131.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.72% White, 0.85% African American, 0.21% Asian, and 0.21% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.43% of the population.
There were 200 households out of which 24.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 67.0% were married couples
living together, 4.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.5% were non-families. 21.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.74.
In the town the population was spread out with 19.8% under the age of 18, 3.2% from 18 to 24, 17.2% from 25 to 44, 35.5% from 45 to 64, and 24.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 51 years. For every 100 females there were 89.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $82,437, and the median income for a family was $100,000. Males had a median income of $100,000 versus $29,688 for females. The per capita income
for the town was $52,871. None of the families and 1.9% of the population were living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and 1.5% of those over 64.
Horry County, South Carolina
Horry County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. This name honored Revolutionary War Hero, Peter Horry. Brigadier General Horry was born in South Carolina sometime around 1743 and started his distinguished military career in 1775 as one of 20 captains the Provincial Congress...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that is between Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Myrtle Beach is a coastal city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is situated on the center of a large and continuous stretch of beach known as the Grand Strand in northeastern South Carolina. It is considered to be a major tourist destination in the...
and North Myrtle Beach
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
North Myrtle Beach is a coastal resort city in Horry County, South Carolina, United States. It was created in 1968 from four existing municipalities north of Myrtle Beach, and serves as one of the primary tourist towns along the Grand Strand...
. The population was 470 at the 2000 census.
Geography
Briarcliffe Acres is located at 33°47′21"N 78°44′50"W (33.789267, -78.747300). According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the town has a total area of 0.6 square miles (1.6 km²), all of it land.
History
Briarcliffe Acres was developed as a retirement community by Kenneth Ellsworth, a native of upstate New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(from which he took the name of his project), who married Virginia (Ginny) Gasque . Her family came from the nearby town of Conway, South Carolina
Conway, South Carolina
Conway is a city in Horry County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 16,317 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Horry County and is part of the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area. It is the home of Coastal Carolina University....
. Briarcliffe was one of the first planned communities in the southeast, which is interesting on its own terms, but its story is a window into the whole of the area (not even mentioning the Vereens, in whose home George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
slept [27 April, 1791], and much more besides).
In the early (pre-1930) parts of the last century, the coastal areas of northernmost South Carolina were used mostly as farming sites (the real estate monolith now known as Burroughs and Chapin for decades was named “Myrtle Beach Farms”). Sea breezes washed nutrients on crops planted on sand dunes, much as now is done through roots in hydroponic gardens, and cotton and tobacco thrived; farmers from Loris, Gallivant’s Ferry, Florence and other low-country towns bought land on the coast for practical reasons and then spent summers with their families there, rather than stay in the hellish heat and sand fleas of their main farms.
As a result, a few people subsequently built vacation homes in the first resort area, Murrell’s Inlet, and, later, erected rooming houses north in what would become Myrtle Beach. One influential example was the Patricia Court (later Patricia Inn and now Patricia Grand Resort) started in the 1930s but reaching importance in the late 1940s, built by Patricia Rousseau of North Wilkesboro, NC. Further north still, Ken and Ginny Ellsworth recognized that the idea of living at the beach for its own sake could be expanded into a community. They found a large tract of land owned by Elizabeth Patterson, a daughter of the Chapins.
Elizabeth Chapin Patterson was a devotee of the eclectic Indian religious leader Meher Baba
Meher Baba
Meher Baba , , born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age....
(born Merwan Sheriar Irani; his chosen name means “compassionate father”), the author, among much else, of Discourses
Discourses (Meher Baba)
Discourses is a book by Meher Baba that has received seven editions since 1939 and is still in print. Besides God Speaks it is considered the second most important of Meher Baba's books by followers of Meher Baba.- Overview:...
and God Speaks
God Speaks
God Speaks, The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose is the principal book by Meher Baba, and the most significant religious text used by his followers. It covers Meher Baba's view of the process of Creation and its purpose and has been in print continuously since 1955.-Overview:God Speaks is Meher...
. He believed and taught that he was the Avatar
Avatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....
—incarnation of God—for the age in which he lived. (Incidentally, he originated the line “Don't Worry, Be Happy
Don't Worry, Be Happy
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" is a song by musician Bobby McFerrin. Released in September 1988, it became the first a cappella song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks. On the UK Singles Chart, the song reached number 2 during its fifth week on the chart...
” that Bobby McFerrin
Bobby McFerrin
Robert "Bobby" McFerrin, Jr. is an American vocalist and conductor. He is best known for his 1988 hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy". He is a ten-time Grammy Award winner.-Life:...
used as the basis of his hit song.)
Patterson established the Meher Spiritual Center
Meher Spiritual Center
The Meher Spiritual Center is a spiritual retreat nestled in a pine forest along the Atlantic Ocean between Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and adjacent to Briarcliffe Acres...
on the southern part of the land she owned (through her family) and sold the northern section to the Ellsworths. She built her own home on the side that was to become Briarcliffe, on what is now Middle Gate Road. To this day, several followers of Baba live in Briarcliffe, many on South Gate Road or Patterson Road to be adjacent to the Meher Spiritual Center.
As soon as it was possible after acquiring the property the Ellsworths dug a yacht basin on the adjacent Intracoastal Waterway, on the land side of US Highway 17
U.S. Route 17
U.S. Route 17 or U.S. Highway 17 is a north–south United States highway. The highway spans the southeastern United States and is close to the Atlantic Coast for much of its length. The highway's southern terminus is at Punta Gorda, Florida, at an intersection with U.S. Route 41...
. They built a small cottage between the highway and yacht basin so they could be close both to the wealthy people on the waterway and the potentially larger numbers of people driving down the main road from New York to Miami. (The idea of capitalizing on the highway also motivated Jack Nelson who built the El Rancho Motel, once featured in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
Magazine, about ten miles (16 km) south.) Ken and Ginny cut roads, layered them with coquina (a local mix of sand and fossilized shells), and looked for residents.
Among the first people to move in were Ginny’s parents who built a home on what is now North Gate Road, just on the edge of the brow above the drop-down to the beach, backing up to the huge lot owned by the Lewis family (who owned the northernmost fishing pier in the area). The location on the brow—like that of Patterson’s home, on the opposite end of the property—was intended to provide both easy access to the shore and protection from storms (a plan that has worked until the present day).
Next came the Sorry family, who built next to the Gasques. They were followed by the Dutch van Buren family (distant descendants of the American President), who discovered the place by anchoring one night in the yacht basin on a trip south and then visiting the land, deciding to build a home and retire, which proved the wisdom of Ken Ellsworth’s original scheme.
The van Burens told another Dutch family — Anton Frederik and Casperina Hermina Groeneveld Baarslag, friends of theirs from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
— about the place who visited and then moved down in 1950.
In 1951 Alfred Colby Hockings and his wife — he was a well-known illustrator for Field and Stream
Field & Stream
Field & Stream is a magazine featuring hunting, fishing, and other outdoor activities in the United States. Together with Sports Afield and Outdoor Life, it is considered one of the Big Three of American outdoor publishing....
magazine, originally from Wisconsin but most recently living in the artists' community of Tryon, North Carolina
Tryon, North Carolina
Tryon is a town in Polk County, North Carolina, United States. According to the 2000 Census the population of Tryon was 1,760. The area is a center for equestrian activity and fine arts....
—-built a home up the street from the Gasques and Sorrys and across from the Baarslags; at almost the same time another Dutch family—Gerbrand and Nellie Poster, the son-in-law and daughter of the Baarslags, came down from New York City to visit her parents for Christmas, decided to stay, and built a home next door to her parents.
(Poster was later to found Coastal Federal Savings and Loan Association and use connections developed during his military service as a Dutch national in the US Army during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to help convince the US Government to declare that the damage done by Hurricane Hazel
Hurricane Hazel
Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest and costliest hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm killed as many as 1,000 people in Haiti before striking the United States near the border between North and South Carolina, as a Category 4 hurricane...
in 1954 should be covered by insurance. This made possible the second renaissance of the community, the first having been its emergence from the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.)
At this time, all the homes in Briarcliffe—except for the van Burens, who lived across the road from the central lake, and Elizabeth Patterson, whose home was on what is now South Gate Road—were clustered along what is now North Gate Road. And two developments, one small and one huge, changed Briarcliffe in ways that remain to this day.
The first was the Poster family itself, which when moving in included a 7 year old and a 4 year old and who were soon joined by a newborn. This changed the tenor of Briarcliffe by moving it from a retirement community to a third (less-expensive) alternative to the Pine Lakes and Dunes sections, all of which offered a place to rear a family close to, but not in, the increasing tawdriness of Myrtle Beach itself.
The second was the financial impact of the government’s intervention with the insurance companies after Hurricane Hazel. The companies had wanted to declare the damage “high water,” which was not covered; Poster convinced the authorities that the damage had been caused by “wind-driven water,” which was covered. This changed the whole of Myrtle Beach, as payment of claims allowed small rooming houses to be replaced by motels. This impacted the whole of coastal South Carolina, including Briarcliffe.
At the same time, the United States Air Force had decided to deal with the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base
Myrtle Beach Air Force Base
Myrtle Beach Air Force Base is a closed United States Air Force facility, located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was established in 1940 as a World War II training base and was also used for coastal patrols during the war...
by treating it as a sort of reward to which people could be assigned if they deserved a vacation or a punishment for those whose careers were at an end.
Many people in both groups chose Briarcliffe as a place in which to build or buy, ranging from important Air Force heroes (such as Col. Francis ["Gabby"] Gabreski
Gabby Gabreski
Francis Stanley "Gabby" Gabreski was the top American fighter ace in Europe during World War II, a jet fighter ace in Korea, and a career officer in the United States Air Force with more than 26 years service.Although best known for his credited destruction of 34½ aircraft in aerial combat and...
, the first pilot to be an "ace" in two wars) to investors, artists and simple families. The boom in Myrtle Beach led to a boom in Briarcliffe, and soon a community once associated with raccoons and deer became a residential destination.
Among the significant people in this new wave must be remembered Rolf Bierens, another Dutchman who—having retired from General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
thanks to his involvement in the design of their automatic transmission—first built his home with his own hands and then the first cabana. Increasingly, other residents brought histories, such as the then-industrialist Krampf, button-manufacturer Schwanda and developer Passow.
Briarcliffe was once a place of lakes, pine and scrub-oak forests and wild animals. Many early residents—largely Netherlanders
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
who had sought liberation—had settled there seeking freedom. When people started naming streets (in the 1960s someone put up a sign declaring that what is now “Hickory Lane” or “Holly Lane” was “Phalarope Path”) it caused weeks of muttering. So when other newcomers began demanding structured government--“You know, like we had it back home”—the few remaining originals, such as Nellie Poster, moved, resigned themselves to their fates or obligingly died.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 470 people, 200 households, and 145 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 719.7 people per square mile (279.2/km²). There were 221 housing units at an average density of 338.4 per square mile (131.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.72% White, 0.85% African American, 0.21% Asian, and 0.21% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.43% of the population.
There were 200 households out of which 24.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 67.0% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 4.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.5% were non-families. 21.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.74.
In the town the population was spread out with 19.8% under the age of 18, 3.2% from 18 to 24, 17.2% from 25 to 44, 35.5% from 45 to 64, and 24.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 51 years. For every 100 females there were 89.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $82,437, and the median income for a family was $100,000. Males had a median income of $100,000 versus $29,688 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the town was $52,871. None of the families and 1.9% of the population were living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and 1.5% of those over 64.