Surfside Beach, SC, Once Called Floral Beach: The Pier That Opened on the Town's 60th Birthday, Surfside Drive and a Town That Kept Its Own Fire Department

On Thursday, March 14, 2024, the day Surfside Beach turned 60, the town opened its new pier to the public, as WMBF reported. It stands on 26 concrete pilings, about 800 feet out into the Atlantic. Its deck is 9 feet higher than the wooden one it replaced, and the structure is designed to last 50 years. Hurricane Matthew had taken more than half of the pier before it, and that wooden pier was itself a rebuild after Hurricane Hugo. Surfside Beach, home to 4,392 people in the Census Bureau's 2025 estimate, is a two-square-mile town between the City of Myrtle Beach and Garden City, and it owns its pier and runs its own fire and police departments.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in South Carolina through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I live in Bluffton, in Beaufort County. This page is for you if a home in Surfside Beach is on your short list. Horry County as a whole, from its road programs to the 4% assessment ratio on a home you live in, is already covered on my Grand Strand guide. Here I stay inside the Town of Surfside Beach. The facts come from public records and local reporting, each one named where it comes up, and I looked them all up on October 20, 2026.

Floral Beach, Ark Beach and a name borrowed from Florida

Long before the pier, this stretch of sand was part of a rice plantation that its owner, John M. Tillman, called The Ark. It later went by Roach's Beach and Ark Beach. In the 1920s George J. Holliday of Galivants Ferry acquired the land and renamed it Floral Beach for his wife, Flora, according to the South Carolina Encyclopedia. The Hollidays kept it modest, with a pavilion, a general store and a few small rental cottages. The old name lives on at the Floral Lake Playground, inside Martin Park on Lakeside Drive.

In 1952 a group of local investors, among them James Calhoun, Craig Wall, Ervin E. Dargan and Collins Spivey, bought most of the original property. They renamed it Surfside Beach after a town in Florida, and none of the sources I found say which one. Surfside Beach incorporated on March 14, 1964, with T. J. Harrison as its first mayor. The town's own slogan is "The Family Beach."

Hurricane Hazel came through on October 15, 1954, a decade before the town was incorporated, and the sources disagree on how hard it hit here. The Hurricane Hazel marker in Myrtle Beach lists "Surfside Beach: 4 of 70 houses habitable." The South Carolina Encyclopedia says the area "was spared general devastation." The pier histories agree that Hazel took the first pier.

Seventy years of piers at 11 Ocean Boulevard

The Holliday family built that first pier in wood in 1953, and Hazel destroyed it the next year. Hurricane Hugo destroyed the pier again in 1989, and it was not rebuilt until 1993, still in wood. Hurricane Fran damaged the end of that one in 1996. The town has owned and operated the pier since 2008, and in October 2016 Matthew took more than half its length, as ABC News 4's look back tells it.

The new pier cost about $20 million, and FEMA paid about $9.5 million of that, with the town covering the rest. It widens from 16 feet to 36 feet as it goes out, and its deck was designed to take the force of waves reaching up to 15 feet above it. The Sun News called it "built to last". Rob Krouse, the town's mayor since the November 2023 election, is a former president of the Surfside Beach Pier Committee.

Perry's Bait and Tackle and Drippy's Ice Cream opened on the pier in 2024, and the Whistling Duck, a wine and charcuterie bar, opened after them. The Surf Diner had its certificate of occupancy in February 2026, which is the official sign-off that a building can open for business. Visit Myrtle Beach lists the diner as back in 2026. Fishing from the pier takes a paid ticket, and children under 12 fish free with a paying adult.

On Sunday, August 31, 2025, the town closed out the summer with a fireworks show that cost nearly $20,000 at the pier. MyHorryNews described it as bringing fireworks back to the pier after nine years.

Surfside Drive, from the farmers market to the Christmas parade

Surfside Drive is the town's main street, and a good part of the town's calendar happens on or near it. The town runs a farmers market at Surfside Drive and South Poplar Drive through the warm season. Memorial Park, at Surfside Drive and North Willow Drive, has lighted sidewalks and six exercise stations under live oaks beside the Veterans Memorial fountain, with a gazebo. The Surfside branch of the Horry County Memorial Library is at 410 Surfside Drive. The Bark Park next door, at 412 1st Avenue North, closes on Wednesday mornings for cleaning.

The calendar fills in from spring on. The Surfside Beach BBQ Festival came in March in 2025. On the Fourth of July, the golf cart parade runs along Ocean Boulevard, and WMBF counted hundreds taking part in 2025. Early September brings the Carolina Cup Pro-Am Surf Fest to the pier. In 2025 it drew more than 300 surfers, with clinics, nightly music and a Saturday-night Hawaiian luau, and Ocean Boulevard closed for part of the weekend.

Celebrate Surfside Beach, the street festival, held its sixth year on Saturday, September 12, 2026, near Poplar Drive South. WMBF's preview listed more than 80 vendors, the band Urban Jukebox, a magician and a charity dunk tank. Hotel event calendars put the Surfside Beach Family Festival on Surfside Drive on Saturday, October 3, 2026, with arts and crafts, festival food and live entertainment.

December starts in Memorial Park. At the 2025 Christmas Tree Lighting Festival, on December 4, the Lakewood Elementary chorus sang, Mayor Krouse welcomed everyone, and there were food trucks, Santa and a snow machine. The Christmas parade on December 13, 2025, stepped off from Ocean Boulevard at Melody Lane and came north to Surfside Drive and on to Poplar Drive, with more than 100 entries, as WMBF's road-closure notice laid out. A holiday market in Memorial Park followed it. Those are last year's dates, so I'd check the town's calendar for this year's.

Thirty-six beach accesses and the parks behind them

The town keeps 36 beach accesses. The 3rd Avenue North access has a restroom, a shower tower and a walking mat. The 13th Avenue South access adds wheelchair access and parking. Melody Lane, at the town's south end, has wheelchair access and a premium parking lot beside it. The lot at 16th Avenue North takes motorcycle trailers during the bike rallies.

Back from the beach, Martin Park at 300 Lakeside Drive is a waterfront park with shuffleboard and bocce courts, a horseshoe pit, picnic shelters and a clubhouse. All Children's Park, at 616 10th Avenue South, has two playgrounds built so that children who use wheelchairs and children who don't can play on the same equipment. The Huckabee Recreational Complex at 499 Spanish Oak Drive has baseball and T-ball fields, and Fuller Park, at Surfside Drive and North Myrtle Drive, has two lighted tennis courts.

A town that kept its own fire trucks

In 2024, facing a budget deficit, the town studied handing its fire service to Horry County Fire Rescue. The county estimated that the change would cost about $185 a year more on a $200,000 home. In November 2024, council voted to keep the department in town, and WMBF reported that Chief David Nelson said the town had matched the county's staffing. The station is at 810 1st Avenue North. In 2025 the town also approved billing insurers for fire and medical service fees. The Surfside Beach Police Department is the town's own as well, at 811 Pine Drive.

Water and sewer work differently from fire and police here. The town's utility consolidated with Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority during 1994, and GSWSA serves Surfside Beach's water and sewer customers directly. So you'll set up water with GSWSA rather than with the town. That is a difference from North Myrtle Beach, which runs its own utility. For trash, the town's 2026-27 budget raised its solid waste charges.

The town also has its own stormwater utility, a fund that pays for drainage. Its second drainage phase, in the Upper Myrtle and Magnolia basins, started construction on December 9, 2024, with new pipes and catch basins on 2nd, 11th and 14th Avenues North. The SC Office of Resilience says federal recovery money, a $500,000 Horry County grant and the town's stormwater fund are paying for it. I didn't find a finish date. If you're looking at a home on one of those avenues, I'd ask the town where that work stands.

Business 17, the Bypass and the roads in between

The town lies between two parallel highways that locals call Business 17 and the Bypass: US 17 Business, also called Kings Highway, and the US 17 Bypass. Surfside Drive is the town's main east-west street. Glenns Bay Road was widened to three lanes, with curb, gutter and sidewalks, from Business 17 to the Bypass, and it got a new interchange at the Bypass. That work came out of RIDE II, the county's 2006 penny sales tax for roads, and WMBF reported in 2018 that storms had pushed completion to that fall.

On Monday, March 9, 2026, Coastal Asphalt began resurfacing streets the town picked through its yearly road assessment, as WMBF reported. The new Hampton Inn on Business 17 and the planned SC 31 connector to the Bypass are on my Grand Strand guide.

The town is also building a new home for its council and its court. The original town hall was torn down in 2023, and on that site, at 115 Highway 17 North, the town put out bids for a single-story council chamber and courtroom of about 6,000 square feet. In September 2026, council approved the low bid, about $4.06 million from BEC Construction. Town offices have been in a former real estate office on Business 17 since 2021.

Hospitals and schools near the town

I found no hospital or emergency room inside the town limits. Grand Strand Health's South Strand Medical Center, a freestanding emergency room and outpatient center, is at 5050 US 17 Bypass, with a Myrtle Beach address. Next to it, Grand Strand Health broke ground in February 2026 on the 59-bed South Strand Hospital, which is expected to open in late 2027, according to Healthcare Design.

Horry County Schools serves the town, and listing sites don't agree on which schools go with which addresses. One home on 14th Avenue North was listed with Seaside Elementary, Socastee Middle and St. James High. A condo on Fawn Vista Drive North was listed with Lakewood Elementary, Forestbrook Middle and Socastee High. A listing site is not the district, so once you have an address in mind, please look it up in Horry County Schools' own address lookup.

Things I'd check on a Surfside Beach address

The town is much smaller than its ZIP code. The town covers about 1.97 square miles. ZIP code 29575 covers about 10.21 square miles of land, and Statistical Atlas lists unincorporated Garden City inside it as well as the town. The ZIP had 18,135 people at the 2020 census, and the Census Bureau's 2025 estimate puts the town at 4,392. So a "Surfside Beach, SC 29575" address on a listing doesn't tell you the home is in the town. The Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors reports its Surfside Beach market figures for the whole ZIP. Through August of this year, the single-family median there was $420,000 on 363 sales, and the condo median was $175,000 on 242. The surest check is the parcel's tax district on the Horry County property record, and if you send me the address, we can look at it together.

The town's share of the tax bill. Surfside Beach's town levy was 43.0 mills on the 2025 county table, the lowest of the Horry towns. A mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. Council held it at 43 mills in the budget for the year that started July 1, 2026. The town's own example puts its levy at $688 on a $400,000 home you live in, and $1,032 on the same home as a second home. That is only the town's share of the tax bill, and the county and school district levies are added on top of it. Inside the town, that levy takes the place of the county fire, fire apparatus and solid waste levies an unincorporated home pays. If you plan to rent the home out, my Grand Strand guide explains the 72-day rental limit for the 4% assessment ratio. I'd also ask the town for its current business license and rental permit rules before you count on rental income.

Flood and drainage. The town moved up to Class 5 of FEMA's Community Rating System in 2015, a program that lowers flood insurance premiums for every policy in a town that does extra floodplain work. That is the most recent class I found, so I'd check FEMA's current list for the town before we count on a discount. The county's Flood Map App shows, address by address, whether a home is in FEMA's high-risk zone. If it is, flood insurance is required on your loan, and I put that premium in the payment I qualify you on. I'd also ask the seller whether water has stood on the lot in heavy rain.

Trees on the lot. The town has required a permit to remove a tree of 3 inches or more across the trunk, measured at about chest height. If you're planning a pool, an addition or a wider driveway, please ask the town for the current ordinance, because the rule may have changed.

A condo's paperwork. Condos make up a large share of what sells in the 29575 ZIP. If you're buying one, please ask early for the association's current budget and its reserve study, if it has one. A reserve study looks at the big repairs ahead and how much the association is saving for them. Please also ask for the last twelve months of board minutes and any special assessments, because the dues are part of your monthly payment.

Putting a Surfside Beach home into your payment

Horry County has one set of 2026 loan limits, conforming and FHA, and you'll find them in the box below this article. The town limits don't change them, and the ZIP's single-family median this year is under both. On a Surfside Beach home, I build your payment from the county and school district shares of the tax bill, plus the town's share if the home is inside the town limits. Your homeowners and wind coverage go in too, along with flood insurance in the high-risk zone and any condo or community dues.

Once you have a home in mind, I can run the payment with that parcel's own tax bill in it. A purchase here starts with a pre-approval letter, and my South Carolina pre-approval page lists the documents I'll ask you to provide. You'll see pricing for your own scenario and choose a rate option, and you can change that choice later. For a veteran or service member, VA loans in South Carolina walks through entitlement and the funding fee. If you already own in town and want a look at your rate, refinancing in South Carolina has the details. My South Carolina page has the statewide rules, including attorney closings.

Estimates and educational information are not a loan approval or commitment to lend, and this page is not tax advice. The Horry County Assessor sets a parcel's value and whether it gets the 4% assessment ratio, and the parcel's record shows whether it is inside the Town of Surfside Beach, so please confirm both before you rely on them.

Common questions

Is Surfside Beach part of Myrtle Beach?

No. Surfside Beach is its own town, incorporated on March 14, 1964, with its own mayor, council, police and fire department. It lies on the south Grand Strand between the south end of the City of Myrtle Beach and Garden City, all in Horry County, so the county's loan limits are the same here.

Is Garden City part of Surfside Beach?

No. Garden City is unincorporated Horry County, though it shares the 29575 ZIP code with the town. The parcel's tax district on the Horry County property record shows which side of the Town of Surfside Beach limits a home is on.

Is the Surfside Beach Pier open?

Yes. The rebuilt concrete pier opened on March 14, 2024, the town's 60th birthday, about 800 feet long and 9 feet higher than the wooden pier Hurricane Matthew broke in 2016. Fishing takes a paid ticket, children under 12 fish free with a paying adult, and the pier has a bait shop, an ice cream shop and places to eat and drink.

Who provides water and sewer in Surfside Beach?

Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority. The town's utility consolidated with GSWSA during 1994, and GSWSA serves the town's water and sewer customers directly, so that is where you set up service.

Does Surfside Beach have its own fire department?

Yes. In 2024 the town studied handing fire service to Horry County Fire Rescue, and in November 2024 council voted to keep its own department. The station is on 1st Avenue North, and the town runs its own police department too.

Why is it called Surfside Beach?

In the 1920s George J. Holliday named the land Floral Beach for his wife, Flora. In 1952 a group of local investors bought most of it and renamed it Surfside Beach after a town in Florida. Floral Lake, the playground in Martin Park, still carries the old name.