Have you ever wondered how Myrtle Beach became the town it is today?
A recent post on a Myrtle Beach Locals Facebook page copied from ChatGPT reads: Myrtle Beach: where the ocean is supposed to be the main attraction, but it’s mostly just a giant, salty puddle trying to wash away the desperation of a thousand souvenir shops. It’s the place where people come to “relax” and end up spending half their time waiting for a table at the world’s 500th identical pancake house.
The sand? More like nature’s version of sandpaper, rubbing against your skin with the same enthusiasm as a tired tourist looking for the nearest Walmart.
And don’t even get me started on the boardwalk—it’s like if a carnival and a parking lot had a child, and that child grew up to be a stretch limo with a bunch of airbrushed T-shirts in the back.
Myrtle Beach: where the only thing hotter than the sun is the competition for the best beach body… and that’s mostly dad bods with questionable tattoos.
CHATGPT is an AI compilation of consensus thought across the internet.
What happens when the rest of the world changes, but you refuse to?
Teaser: Founder’s daughter consecrates city to a Guru God in 1956
Myrtle Beach did not start out that way. Would you believe the town was founded by a Wall Street banker, who made his fortune during the Gilded Age? This banker played a crucial role in shaping the area into a popular tourist destination.
Simeon B Chapin is a central figure in the foundation of Myrtle Beach.
Chapin was born at a significant time in American history, and his life journey reflects the transformations of the era.
Simeon B Chapin was born May 31, 1865 at the very end of the Civil War. He would die on Jan. 6, 1945. His life begins and ends at the completion of two significant wars that defined America’s sense of itself.
Chapin’s success story is a testament to the opportunities that emerged during the Gilded Age.
The Legacy of Simeon B Chapin in Myrtle Beach Development
His move to New York City marked a new chapter, where he made influential connections in the financial world.
He was a New York financier and philanthropist. He was the key early developer of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Chapin was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.. In 1878, he attended the Harvard School for Boys in Chicago. In 1883, he began work at Armour and Company in Chicago.
Nine years later, in 1892, he began his own business as a banker and broker in Chicago.
On October 5, 1892, he married Elizabeth “Bessie” Mattocks Chapin in Chicago. They had four children: Simeon, Virginia, Elizabeth and Marietta.
This was the Gilded Age in the United States. The era lasted roughly from 1870 to 1900. It was a time of rapid industrialization, economic growth, and the rise of a wealthy class.
In the 1860’s railroads finished their lines of track linking Chicago with the wheat fields of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. The cities of Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New Orleans, St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, and St. Paul became connected by rail. Railroads were exceptionally important as shippers of cattle, grain and other livestock established Chicago as the major market in the grain and meatpacking industries.
Simeon B Chapin was in the right place at exactly the right time in history. He became a very rich man. He was among America’s Super Wealthy. His children were the avant-garde of America’s influential class during the roaring 1920’s, a generation later. .
He and Bessie moved to New York City in 1899 where he ran his company. He garnered a seat on the NY Stock exchange and became part of the NY Social Scene. His daughters each had their official coming of age debutant celebrations highlighted by the front pages of the NY Times. F Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the flappers, the roaring 20’s and the next wave of Americans in his book the Great Gatsby. This was the generation of Chapin’s trust fund children.
Chapin had homes in Pinehurst North Carolina, Myrtle Beach South Carolina, Chicago, New York City, a lake home and a farm on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin, which was called “Flowerside Farms”.
Chapin was a man of few words with a bias towards action. He was a doer. He was also a captain of finance, hanging out with the likes of J.P. Morgan, The Wrigley Family, William Rockefeller, and the Vanderbilts. He was among a group of Manhattan New York Financial insiders who controlled all things Wall Street.
In 1901, he formed S. B. Chapin Company which had offices in both Chicago and on Wall Street. In 1906, he and his family moved to Manhattan, where they took up permanent residence on 5th Avenue, in one of his three private residences. Today the luxurious 930 Fifth Avenue highrise sits on this land. The 141 residential unit property, with commercial space, is located in the upper crust section of Manhattan overlooking central park. Just one residential unit in that highrise sells for approximately $7 million today.
An avid hunter, sportsman and golfer, in the early 1900’s, Chapin bought 2 homes beside his sister in Pinehurst NC. One home he used for his family, as he preferred going to sleep early. A 2nd home was used to host influential friends who socialized until the wee hours of the morning.
It was during a stay in Pinehurst in 1911 that he heard of a real estate development opportunity in South Carolina.
Simeon and his partner, Franklin G. Burroughs, of Conway, S.C., became the pioneer developers of the resort community of Myrtle Beach.
Today, Simeon B. Chapin is remembered for his significant contributions to the development and growth of Myrtle Beach.
In 1912, he joined Burroughs and Collins Company to form Burroughs & Chapin, which developed practically all of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The developers laid out the streets. They sold most of the homes. They founded the earliest businesses, including a gas station, and later, the Chapin Company store.
The Chapin Company store was the Super Walmart/Home Depot of its day. The mall included the town’s grocery store, a men’s and women’s fashion store, a sporting goods store, and a hardware store.
B&C owned vast acreage (which the Burroughs family purchased from the Withers Family). The parcel they owned ran from the coast, as far west as to the Waccamaw River.
Myrtle Beach was managed top down by Burroughs and Chapin. Very little happened without the approval of Simeon Chapin and his tight inner circle.
Chapin was a man of action. The controls he set in place for the town continue to impact what can and can not be done commercially even today.
Chapin retired in 1941, after which he formed several philanthropic foundations, including Chapin Foundation of Myrtle Beach, which by 2005 had contributed $15 million to churches, institutions, and hospitals in the city. The Chapin Foundation is the largest shareholder in Burroughs and Chapin, owning 17%.
Many of the significant churches in Myrtle Beach that Chapin founded in the early 1900’s had deed restrictions. Those restrictions limited the church’s ability to sell the property. Those restrictions often stated that “should the congregation cease meeting”, the land and property reverted back to Chapin’s holdings. The church could not sell the land beneath the building. The land was the property of Chapin’s business interests.
Simeon B. Chapin’s era in Myrtle Beach supposedly ended with his death in 1945. History, however, coupled with two of his businesses and one foundation he created, continue to fundamentally land lock the town.
Simeon B. Chapin was truly a product of the midwest. He was never a man who rubbed shoulders with rural farmers in Orree County. Few poor families in 1920’s Orree County could relate to his life experiences, his wealth and his influence.
His most beloved home was on Lake Geneva. He died in Pinehurst North Carolina on January 6, 1945 as World War II was ending. He is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
You will find few, if any, descendants of the Chapin family buried in Horry County.
Chapin was a lifelong outsider who became the ultimate insider of Myrtle Beach.
His trust fund descendants, of whom few called Myrtle Beach their primary home, continued to add key narrative to all that is Myrtle Beach over the next 100 years.
The following appeared on January 25, 1916 in The New York Times:
The plans for the wedding of Miss Marietta L. Chapin, the elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Simeon B. Chapin, and Harold Hartshorne, the son of Mr. and Mrs. James Mott Hartshorne, have been completed. The wedding will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 23rd, at 4:30 o’clock, in the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, Forty-eighth Street and Fifth Avenue.
Miss Chapin will have her sister, Miss Elizabeth M. Chapin, as her maid of honor, and the bridesmaids selected are the Misses Eleanor Hartshorne, a sister of the bridegroom.
This was the NY coming of age tribute for Simeon B. Chapin’s oldest daughter. Just 4 years later, she would die in childbirth on March 24, 1920 at age 25. Her son, Harry Jr., who had just turned two years old, would live. The father, Harold Hartshorne Sr. had seven children with three different wives. Harry Sr. was married a total of 4 times. This was unheard of in 1920’s and 1930’s America, even in New York.
Harry Jr. would be raised by Simeon and Bessie as their own son for most of his young life.
He attended Princeton University as an undergraduate, receiving his BA in English in 1940. After graduating, like his Grandpa, he held a short-lived seat on the N.Y. Stock Exchange until he was drafted into the army in 1941. Harry moved to Lake Geneva where he began a farming career on Chapin family land.
Harry was a man of two worlds. While his life on the farm in Wisconsin flourished, he was also devoted to the Burroughs and Chapin Company in Myrtle Beach.. Harry sat on the Board of Directors of the Burroughs and Chapin Company for fifty years, from 1948 to 1998. Though his primary home was in Wisconsin, Harry Jr.rarely missed a board meeting.
Harry Jr. passed away at the age of 95 on October 28, 2013. He was laid to rest alongside his maternal grandparents, Simeon Brooks Chapin and Elizabeth Mattocks Chapin, in the Chapin Family Mausoleum at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
As to Simeon Chapin’s son, Simeon Chapin Jr, he was not central to the Myrtle Beach business interests. He was born in New York City on March 31, 1903. He was educated at Lawrenceville School for Boys before going to work for his father’s stocks and bonds company in New York City. On November 9, 1926, he married his wife Elsa Bartholomay and they had three children: Claire, Marietta and Elsa.
Simeon Chapin Jr. largely managed the NY family affairs. He died in Manhattan May 1949. He was only 46 years old. Like most of his family, he is buried in the family cemetery in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Simeon’s youngest daughter, Virginia, was a world traveler. Virginia Chapin was born in New York City in 1908. She traveled extensively during her youth with her mother, from Europe to Mexico and many places in between. She married Francis Augustus Drake on April 29, 1930. The marriage ended in divorce in the 1950’s. She later married Burton Frye. She spent a large portion of her life living in New York and Lake Geneva. She died in Myrtle Beach at the age of 80. She is also buried in Lake Geneva. Her one daughter, Daphne Joane Drake, however, is a regular resident of Myrtle Beach.
And that leaves Elizabeth. Her life, her choices, and Myrtle Beach’s destiny are permanently intertwined. Elizabeth Chapin Patterson co-founded the Meher Baba Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in the early 1940s. The center and the City of Myrtle Beach were officially dedicated and consecrated to guru Meher Baba in 1956 during an “open day” ceremony on July 27th.
The Meher Baba Center in Myrtle Beach sits on approximately 500 acres of oceanfront adjacent land just south of Briarcliffe Acres. The property was given to Elizabeth Chapin-Patterson by her father as a gift to the guru.
Elizabeth Chapin Patterson was born in Chicago in 1896. She held a special place in Simeon’s heart. Elizabeth married a prominent New York stockbroker named Kenneth Askew Patterson. Elizabeth was a successful New York insurance executive in the late 1920’s. Yet, she and Kenneth would only live in the same home for approximately 3 years. Kenneth Patterson lived until 1956.
He was what local Horry County residents would call a “dandy.” He played piano. He loved the arts. He loved the roaring New York social life. Patterson had what New Yorkers called an amicable relationship with his wife Elizabeth. They lived apart for most of their lives. They never divorced.
Chapin-Patterson spent her life searching. She was a trust fund baby on a spiritual quest.
She first met an Indian God guru figure named Merwan Sheriar Irani in 1931, at Harmon retreat, outside of New York City. Afterwards, she was devoted to him and journeyed with Him during most of his tours in the West. She also came to India with the first Western group of “seekers” in 1933.
She would devote her life to this God figure for the remainder of her life. He called her soul stealer, a term of endearment as to how he felt about her.
Meher Baba was born to Irani Zoroastrian parents in 1894 in Pune, India. His birth name was Merwan Sheriar Irani, the second son of Sheriar Irani and Shireen Irani. His religious name was Meher Baba. He, and his followers, viewed himself as God and the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.
Merwan continues to be an influence among elitists and a foundational part of Myrtle Beach with the establishment of the oceanfront Meher Baba Spiritual center. Upon her death, the religion was also left Chapin stock and shares in Chapin property by Patterson as she had no children
Merwan’s presence captivated Elizabeth Chapin-Patterson. She was among the first American disciples of his religion, leaving her husband and devoting her life to him. She gave up her affluent NY social life to become his personal driver.
New York broadway actors and Myrtle Beach artists hung on Merwan’s every word. NY actress Jan Berry Haynes was an early disciple. The chronicles of Meher Baba record. Jane first heard the saint’s name on May 26th, 1958, in the Barn at Meher Center. Seated in Norina’s high-backed yellow chair, Baba asked several around Him if they knew of St. Teresa of Avila. St. Teresa of Avila is also known as Mother Teresa. Some commented on Mother Teresa’s founding of convents, others mentioned her spiritual writings on prayer and the journey toward union with God. Baba gestured, “Yes, all these things are true. But the most important thing was that she devoted her entire life to Jesus Christ – to Me.”
In the heart of the Southern Bible Belt, in 1940’s America, at the Myrtle Beach Meher Baba center, Merwan taught that God is the only reality and that the universe is an illusion. Merwan believed that the avatar is the form that God takes when he manifests on Earth. In Merwan’s teachings, the Avatar is the same being who has appeared in the past as Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed.
The Meher Baba religion teaches that the entire universe is simply an illusion.
In August 1925 Merwan writes, “There is one secret about Jesus that Christians do not know. When Jesus was crucified, he did not die. He entered the state of Nirvikalp Samadhi. (The I am God state with body consciousness.)
On the 3rd Day, Jesus again became conscious of his body, and he traveled secretly in disguise eastward (with some Apostles) to India.
After reaching India, he traveled farther east to Rangoon, in Burma, where he remained for some time. He then went north to Kashmir, where he settled.
When his work on earth was finished, he dropped his body and entered Nirvikalp Samadhi permanently.
Merwan then claims that Saints in India verified these facts about Jesus Christ’s time in India. Merwan, like Jesus, said that He and the Father were One. Merwan said he was not only the Father, but the Mother, the Son, the Friend, the Redeemer, the Saviour and the Compassionate One
He tells Elizabeth Chapin Patterson, I was Jesus. I am Jesus, let’s go.
“Time and again,” Meher Baba told his followers, “I come to arouse and awaken humanity. I came as Zoroaster, as Abraham, as Rama, as Krishna, as Buddha, as Jesus and Mohammed and now I have come as Meher Baba.”
Not to knock this religion, but if you are going to get reincarnated, why not come back time and time again as the most profound figures in world history?
Meher Baba was as counter culture to Horry County as any person could be. This was the bible belt south of the 1940s. While rural churches in areas like Galivants Ferry, Bayboro, Green Sea, Loris, and Longs were appalled, the many churches founded on Chapin land in Myrtle Beach turned a blind eye to his teachings and the town’s consecration to this god.
The Meher Baba center, Meher Baba’s holdings in Burroughs and Chapin and the Chapin Company continue to be things locals are not willing to publicly discuss.
The City of Myrtle Beach religious consecration ceremony of July 27, 1956 is buried in the town’s history of secrets. Yet Jewish merchants in the city believe Chapin-Patterson cursed the town for up to 4 generations as written in Hebrew texts.
On Dec. 6, 1980, Elizabeth Patterson died in Myrtle Beach after a lifetime of service to Meher Baba. Her funeral services were held at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Myrtle Beach. The service was unique. Meher Baba religious patrons, Myrtle Beach insiders, New York celebrities, and a strange mix of all things universal attended the service. Her ashes were later brought to Meherabad, India and interred near Merwan’s (the Meher Baba) in the women’s cemetery.
Whether Chapin-Patterson cursed the town or not, her life had a significant impact on the city. Christians believe the death and resurrection of Christ ended man’s curse once and for all.
We will explain how Simeon B. Chapin’s business arrangements land-locked the town as it developed. The trust fund legacy he left behind continues to impact development in the downtown district even to this day.
Local News Via - MyrtleBeachSC.com
