Building 581 Myrtle Beach Airforce Base, Farrow Parkway: 1993 7 comments
I noticed a new cut-in to Farrow Parkway at the (bankrupt) Market Commons shopping development in Myrtle Beach back in July.
Market Commons is the Myrtle Beach equivalent of Village At Sandhill, and is the most promenient development on the old Myrtle Beach Airforce Base. The base (which shared runways with the Myrtle Beach Jetport) was closed in 1993, and most of the old Airforce Buildings are already gone. The new cut-in to Farrow however leads to one which is still standing, more or less.
I don't know what Building 581 was used for, but the size of some of the doors make me think it may have been a vehicle maintenance facility or storage building. Probably the later, as I saw no evidence of pits or lifts. The place has now been heavily tagged with graffiti, sometimes amusingly, sometimes profanely, so some of the pictures after the jump might be considered NSFW.
Google Maps indicates a phantom road on the north side of the building, which it designates as Old Railbed Road. I suspect that it originally was a rail spur which connected to the rail line crossing the trestle connecting the Waccamaw Neck with the rest of the national rail grid, and would have been used to bring in supplies back in the day.
7 Responses to 'Building 581 Myrtle Beach Airforce Base, Farrow Parkway: 1993'
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David Harwood
12 Sep 12 at 4:37 pm
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Very interesting, thanks!
I'll have to go back this fall and see if the building is still there.
ted
12 Sep 12 at 4:59 pm
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I had no military connection but my Boy Scout troop used to camp at MB AF Base a lot, so we sort of got to know our way around. Had a lot of fun there. This was around 1971 - 72 - 73.
Dennis
12 Sep 12 at 7:36 pm
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David - I was recently out there and ran across another building closer to the airstrip. It was very large, tall, a big square. One side was open and the opening was rimmed with thick slats of wood. The outside of the building was basically thick grooves of concrete - on the inside there's nothing there but wooden planks escalating upward. At the top there appears to be a large hole towards the front. The building is easily three or four stories high -
see here on my facebook for an
image:Would LOVE to know what it was used for.
21 Sep 12 at 8:32 pm
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Hi Stephanie, the building is where the high explosives were stored. The entire concrete portion was covered with tons and tons of dirt, and the openeing is where the huge steel doors would have been. The hole you mention was in case of an explosion to direct the blast up, and away from personnel. This has been pretty cool going down memory lane for me anyway. The best time I ever had was in Myrtle Beach. I should have never left the area.
David Harwood
26 Sep 12 at 9:27 pm
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Stephanie..I was at MBAFB from 81-87. The facility you took a picture of was the old bore site/gun area we built for testing the aircraft guns. The jets were parked in the front and bullets were shot into the open end of the building. The last time it was use for this was in the early 70s though. High explosives wwas never stored in it though.
Robert Jones
5 Feb 14 at 12:10 am
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If anyone stumbles across this- I've been trying to find more info on the railroad spur to the Airforce base. Where exactly is (was?) building 581? Does anyone have more info on the railroad spur(s)? Thanks
JB
22 Nov 23 at 4:25 pm
The buildings and offices is what's left of the "bomb dump" or ammunition storage area. I was stationed in Myrtle Beach from 1977 to 1981. If you look closely and pictures 17 and 18 you will notice blue tile, an M and O. Not long before I got out of the AF and left MB a few of us laid all of the tile and the M AND O you see is part of what spelled AMMO. You can see references to ammo in other pictures.
Dave Harwood