{"id":2481,"date":"2010-08-29T22:20:25","date_gmt":"2010-08-30T03:20:25","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-04-22T22:20:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T02:20:03","slug":"olivers-lodge-4204-highway-17-business-murrells-inlet-winter-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=2481","title":{"rendered":"Oliver's Lodge, 4204 Highway 17 Business Murrells Inlet: Winter 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to visitors from the www.city-data.com forum! If you want to see more grand strand area memories and pictures, click this link<\/a>. There are posts on The Pavilion, Waccamaw Pottery and a number of other Grand Strand institutions -- Ted<\/p>\n

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[22 Jan 2010]<\/p>\n

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[12 Aug 2010]<\/p>\n

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Oliver's Lodge<\/i> (pronounced as one word Oliverslodge<\/i>) is the first seafood restaurant I can recall eating at.<\/p>\n

Now, if you've read this blog for a while, you'll know I don't like seafood and never have. Nonetheless, as a kid I was always eager to go whenever we were at the beach. At that time (the late 1960s), they served a lunch menu until 5pm, and that menu had spaghetti, something I would always eat, so my folks usually tried to arrange for us to arrive just before 5 so I could have my spaghetti and the grownups could have \"supper\". The timing was usually touch-and-go since the place drew tremendous crowds, and getting there before 5 was no guarantee of being seated before 6.<\/p>\n

Waiting for anything<\/i> with kids is always dicey, and if there were cousins as well as my sister and me, things could very easily get out of hand, but the location worked towards letting kids \"free range\". As you can see from some of the pictures, Oliver's<\/i> sits on a large lot fronting on Murrells Inlet itself. There were several huge trees (which are still there) and a derelict john-boat or two (now gone) as well as a dock going out into the marsh where the fresh fish were brought in each day during the time when the place was a working lodging house. In addition, the lot next door was a church which was generally vacant on weekday afternoons, so there was plenty of room to race around, and plenty of things to fool with. Best of all, the lodge's big back porch always had a low-country \"joggling\" board -- a long flexible plank suspended between two rocker-edged saw-horses. You could get a crowd of cousins on that going back and forth and up and down until the grownups would eventually get alarmed and tell us to take it easy.<\/p>\n

My memory is that when we first started going, dining was mostly on the back porch which was, at that time, screened, but not air-conditioned. Aside from my spaghetti (or baked-potato or whatever I ended up having ot get if we missed the 5pm deadline), the food was basic Calabash Style<\/i> fried seafood with piping hot delicious hush-puppies.<\/p>\n

The building was always a bit ramshackle. I don't know when it stopped being a boarding house and went to restaurant only operation, but the big upstairs area was largely unused in my memory. When we started going, there was still a customer restroom available upstairs, and I always liked going up there and looking around -- by the 1970s I believe the upstairs was wholly closed to customer access.<\/p>\n

Also in the 1970s, the owners tacked up plastic sheeting over the screen porch. And I do mean \"plastic\" and not plexiglass or anything solid. Whenever anyone would open a door or the air conditioning kicked in, the sheeting up over all the walls would billow in and out.<\/p>\n

It seems to me that as the 70s went on, we went to Oliver's<\/i> less and less. It's not that anyone stopped liking it, but more that other options became available as the coast commercialized. The last time I recall going with a large party of cousins was probably in the late 1970s just as my generation was heading to college. We ate inside rather than on the porch, and my cousin Mike stuck his nose in a big sawfish nose hung on the wall -- a picture that I'm sure will surface eventually. I think we also played name-that-drink charades with the bar menu.<\/p>\n

After that, I believe the next time I ate there was the last. I think it was the early 1990s, and I was either alone or with a very small party. We (or I) was on the back porch, and I noticed that the plastic sheeting had been replaced with plexiglass. The menu was also radically different, and it was evident that Oliver's<\/i> had undergone a change in ownership. The defining moment for me was when they brought out the huspuppies and I found they were served with raspberry butter. That might be good, but it wasn't Oliver's<\/i>.<\/p>\n

After that, and after I started spending a lot more time at the beach I thought of going back a number of times but somehow never got around to it. Last winter I actually made the effort, but it never worked out. I would find that it wasn't open weekdays during the off season, or that it was only open for lunch, or not open Mondays or -- that it was apparently never<\/i> open.<\/p>\n

That last was a conclusion I flirted with, but never quite committed to. After all the website was still up<\/a> [try this archived version<\/a> once that link goes dead] , I could see the tables set through the window, and there was no note on the door..<\/p>\n

Finally I went back on 12 August this year, and this time it was obvious that the place was closed: There was a big bar across the front doors, Coke<\/i> had put a sticker claiming the fountains inside and the place was seriously overgrown. All these photos except 2, 3, 4 & 5 come from that visit.<\/p>\n

So when did the place actually close for the last time? That's hard to say, but look at photos 2, 3, 4 & 5. These were taken on 22 Jan 2010. In particular, look at the place settings on the back porch table. Although a chair has been moved, it is clear to me that the napkins, plates and silverware in the 22 Jan photos are exactly the same as in the 12 Aug photos. So, sometime before 22 Jan, the bus staff laid out all the place settings -- and never came back.<\/p>\n

As I was taking these photos on 12 Aug, two different cars pulled into the lot looking to eat, and both parties took their own pictures and shared stories of eating there as kids as well.<\/p>\n

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UPDATE 16 June 2011<\/b>: Added whole 12 August 2010 photoset link.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 18 July 2011<\/b>: here<\/a> is an article remembering Oliver's Lodge<\/i> from the Georgetown Times<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Photoset 12 August 2010<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 31 January 2012<\/b> -- Take a look at these interior pictures by Beverly Bledsoe on the Ugly Hedgehog photography forum<\/a>. Very nice!<\/p>\n

UPDATE 11 July 2012<\/b> -- As mentioned by commenter Paul, someone has taken the property in hand and has partially boarded it up and posted it. Still no \"For Sale\" sign though. Pictures from 4 July 2012:<\/p>\n

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UPDATE 22 April 2026<\/b>: I noticed while driving by last week that there was a construction fence up around the property. My thought was that somebody was doing renovations. Unfortunately I must report that the place was on wait to be torn down. I'm not sure what happened to the owners who had put up signs that the place was now a private residence, but apparently they are out of the picture, and the property was bought by the neighboring church. When they looked to see if they could use the building, they found it was too far gone, and had deteriorated to the point that any attempt to fix it would cost enough to trigger the \"must be raised above flood level\" rule in the local building codes. The Coastal Observer has the story<\/a><\/p>\n

The building can\u2019t be saved, but the memories sure can.<\/p>\n

A crowd of about 100 members of the congregation and community gathered in front of Oliver\u2019s Lodge on Sunday afternoon. They were sniffling and wiping away tears by the time the Rev. Will Malambri, the senior pastor at Belin Memorial United Methodist Church, closed out the farewell ceremony with a prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank you for the warmth, rest, good food and good fellowship that have been enjoyed at Oliver\u2019s Lodge. Countless people sat on the joggling board, enjoyed corn fritters and fried flounder, had their first dates, anniversaries and birthdays, made this place central to their annual family gatherings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kin McKinzie spent his summers in Murrells Inlet as a child in the late 1960s. He became a busboy at Oliver\u2019s Lodge during his summer breaks from high school in Florence.<\/p>\n

McKinzie recalled the thousands of hungry diners who lined up around the building to grab a seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d sit there like hawks and watch those tables come open. We\u2019d have our tray ready to take off, and boom. Boom, boom, boom. Clear and set a table in 30 seconds,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople would laugh and photograph us and time us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was simple back then, McKinzie added. Each dish washed and every dollar was counted by hand.<\/p>\n

He said he did it alongside Roosevelt \u201cRooster\u201d Pickett, a longtime resident and employee at Oliver\u2019s Lodge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just incredible to me how one man with so little material possessions, you know, nothing to his name, impacted so many lives,\u201d McKinzie said. \u201cHe certainly had a tremendous impact on my life that will stay with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inlet Affairs provided a taste of the food Oliver\u2019s Lodge once served including popcorn shrimp, hush puppies and chicken tenders.<\/p>\n

The building, which Belin purchased for $2 million in February, will be disassembled rather than demolished or renovated. <\/p>\n

Belin contracted with Conway Architectural Salvage and Heritage Project, a nonprofit created in 2023 by Alan Todd, a professor at Coastal Carolina University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will take great care to make sure it is honored well. It\u2019s reassuring and encouraging to us,\u201d Malambri said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust know that we\u2019re going to do it with the love and care Oliver\u2019s deserves,\u201d Todd said.<\/p>\n

Paul Gardner, the church\u2019s administrator, gathered input from the church trustees and local experts to guide the decision. The .6 acre property was the last contiguous piece of land available to the church campus. Belin owns the adjacent lot stretching from the creek to Business 17.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here<\/a> is the initial story on the purchase by the church.<\/p>\n

Some former employees reminisce:<\/p>\n