They called it the castle on the ocean. The wedding cake hotel. The million dollar dream. For nearly half a century, the Ocean Forest Hotel stood at the north end of Myrtle Beach — ten stories of white brick rising twenty-nine feet above sea level, its lighthouse spire visible for miles up and down the coast. It was unlike anything the Grand Strand had ever seen. And its story — of ambition, ruin, resilience, and ultimately demolition — is inseparable from the story of Myrtle Beach itself.
1930 Year the Ocean Forest Hotel formally opened — February 21st
$1M Construction cost — earning it the nickname "The Million Dollar Hotel"
1974 Year it was demolished — imploded on Friday, September 13th
Arcady: The Dream Before the Hotel
To understand the Ocean Forest, you have to understand Arcady — the name its creators gave to their vision. Named after an ancient Greek concept of paradise — a place of peace and solitude in nature — Arcady was to be the most ambitious resort destination ever conceived on the American coast. The men behind it were John T. Woodside and his brothers, textile magnates from Greenville, South Carolina who had built their fortune on a chain of mills that included the largest textile operation under a single roof in the world.
In 1925, the Woodside Company purchased an astonishing 65,000 acres of Grand Strand coastline from the Myrtle Beach Farms Company — 14 miles of pristine Atlantic shoreline, draped with sea oats, twisted live oaks, and wind-shaped wax myrtles. Their vision was sweeping: the most complete coastal playground ever contemplated, a destination to rival anything on the Eastern Seaboard. The golf course and country club — what is today Pine Lakes Country Club, the oldest golf course in Myrtle Beach — opened in 1928. The hotel was next.
They wanted to create "the most desirable haven of rest and recreation in the world." For a few brilliant years, they came remarkably close.
The Architect and the Hotel
For the crown jewel of Arcady, the Woodsides hired Raymond Hood — one of the most celebrated architects in America. Hood had recently won the international competition to design the Chicago Tribune Tower and would go on to design New York's Rockefeller Center. Commissioning Hood was a statement: this was not going to be a modest beach hotel. This was going to be a landmark.
What Hood designed was spectacular. The Ocean Forest rose as a ten-story central tower flanked by two five-story wings — a tiered silhouette that earned it the nickname the wedding cake hotel. The exterior was white brick, pristine against the Atlantic sky. The interior was something else entirely.
The Ocean Forest Hotel — Myrtle Beach's "wedding cake hotel" — as seen in a period postcard. The ten-story tower flanked by two five-story wings became the defining landmark of the Grand Strand for nearly 50 years. | Photo:
Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
What $1 Million Bought in 1930
✦ The Ocean Forest Hotel — Amenities & Features
| 202 ventilated guest rooms |
Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers |
| Greek marble columns & stairways |
Grand Georgian ballrooms |
| Salt water OR fresh water in every bath |
Indoor & outdoor swimming pools |
| Elevators (a rarity in Myrtle Beach) |
Oriental rugs throughout the lobby |
| Lighthouse spire atop the tower |
13 acres of grounds, gardens & stables |
| Colonnaded marble verandas |
Open-air oceanfront amphitheater |
The dress code was strict. Gentlemen were not permitted to enter the ballroom without a tuxedo. Ladies wore evening gowns. The Ocean Forest was not simply a hotel — it was a lifestyle, and the lifestyle it represented was one of refined, upper-class coastal leisure at a time when very few places in the American South offered anything like it.
Opening Night & the Crash That Followed
The Ocean Forest Hotel formally opened on the evening of February 21, 1930. By any measure, the opening was a triumph — a glittering event that announced to the world that Myrtle Beach had arrived as a serious destination. The problem was the timing. The stock market had crashed in October 1929, just months before the ribbon was cut.
The Woodside family, who had gone all in on Arcady, were devastated by the collapse. They lost their six Greenville textile mills. They lost their 17-story Woodside National Bank. They lost the hotel, the country club, and all 65,000 acres of Grand Strand coastline — everything that Arcady had promised to become. The hotel and its surrounding property were foreclosed upon by Woodside's bank, Iselin and Company of New York, and would change hands several times in the years that followed.
The Ocean Forest Hotel, 1935 — five years after its grand opening, the hotel had become the defining landmark of the Grand Strand and a magnet for society guests from across the East Coast. | Photo:
Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
The Golden Years: Celebrity, Glamour & the Grand Strand's Coming of Age
Despite its troubled beginning, the Ocean Forest found its footing. Located precisely halfway between New York City and Miami — 558 miles from each — it became known as the Grand Central Station of the area. The hotel attracted celebrities, dignitaries, and socialites from across the country. Burt Lahr — the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz — stayed here. Shelly Winters, Strom Thurmond, and others graced its marble lobbies. The open-air amphitheater hosted world-class acts including Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, and Spike Jones.
Young couples from Conway and Horry County would dress up and make the trip to the Ocean Forest for an evening of dancing on the open-air floor. For locals, it was the grandest thing they had ever seen. For visitors, it was proof that the Grand Strand was a destination worth the journey. The hotel did not just serve Myrtle Beach — it built it.
For nearly 50 years, the Ocean Forest was the tallest, most imposing, most impressive structure on the Grand Strand. It loomed large in the lives of everyone who called this coast home.
The South Carolina lowcountry landscape that framed the Grand Strand coast during the Ocean Forest Hotel's heyday — moss-draped live oaks, dark water, and the untouched natural beauty that drew the Woodsides to this stretch of Atlantic shoreline. | Photo:
Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Co. / William Henry Jackson, ca. 1901 · No known copyright restrictions
The Long Decline
The postwar decades were not kind to the Ocean Forest. As automobile travel expanded and new, modern hotels rose along the coast, the aging structure struggled to keep pace. The plumbing and electrical systems — designed in the 1920s — became increasingly costly to maintain. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, central air conditioning had become the standard expectation of American hotel guests. The Ocean Forest, with its ventilated but not air-conditioned rooms, could not compete.
Niles "Sonny" Stevens and Dexter Stuckey purchased the hotel in 1973 for a site valued at $7.5 million. They soon recognized the reality: bringing the Ocean Forest up to modern code — new plumbing, new wiring, air conditioning throughout — was effectively impossible. The cost would dwarf the value. The items inside were auctioned off. Crystal chandeliers that had hung over grand ballrooms left for new homes across the country. Doorframes were salvaged and can still be found today at local Myrtle Beach restaurants. The lighthouse that once topped the tower was relocated and eventually became part of Family Kingdom Amusement Park.
Friday the 13th, 1974
On Friday, September 13, 1974 — exactly 44 years after its triumphant opening season — the Ocean Forest Hotel was imploded. Six charges of dynamite brought down the million-dollar dream in a matter of minutes. Spectators gathered to watch. Historian and photographer Jack Thompson, who had spent years documenting the building, heard the six explosions and watched it fall.
In its place rose condominium towers — the new face of Myrtle Beach's tourism economy. The site is now occupied by Ocean Forest Villas. The only physical remnant on the original grounds is a circular driveway at 5900 North Ocean Boulevard — the old entrance to the hotel — now quietly surrounded by residential development. Pine Lakes Country Club, the golf course the Woodsides built in 1928, still operates today as the oldest course in Myrtle Beach.
An aerial view of the Ocean Forest Hotel on the Myrtle Beach oceanfront — the ten-story tower and its wings visible against the Atlantic, the sweeping grounds and the first golf course in Myrtle Beach stretching inland. The entire footprint that the Woodsides built is visible here. | Photo:
Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
What the Ocean Forest Left Behind
The Ocean Forest Hotel is gone, but its fingerprints are everywhere. It established that Myrtle Beach could attract a national — even international — clientele. It proved that the Grand Strand could compete with the finest resort destinations in America. It set a standard of ambition that every hotel, high-rise, and resort built in its wake has in some way been chasing ever since.
The Woodsides lost everything in building it. But what they left behind — a destination, a culture, an identity — proved to be worth far more than they ever lost.
🏡 What This History Means for the Grand Strand Today
The Ocean Forest Hotel's story is ultimately a story about vision and value — the kind of vision that sees what a place could become before the rest of the world catches on. That same quality drives the Grand Strand real estate market today. Buyers who understand Myrtle Beach's history understand why this coast has always attracted people willing to invest in its potential. Whether you're searching for a primary home, a vacation property, or an investment, you're participating in a story that started with a dream on an empty stretch of Atlantic coastline — and it is very much still being written. Our agents at Realty ONE Group Dockside know this market, its roots, and its future better than anyone on the coast.
The next time you drive past Pine Lakes Country Club, or spot the circular driveway tucked between the condos on North Ocean Boulevard, take a moment. You're looking at what's left of one of the most audacious dreams ever planted on this coast. And you're living in everything it helped create.